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DAVID LIVINGSTOAE 



EUROPE IN AFRICA 



]N 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 



BY 



ELIZABETH WORMELEY LATIMER 

AUTHOR OF " FRANCE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY," " RUSSIA 

AND TURKEY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY," " ENGLAND 

IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY," ETC. 




THIRD EDITION 



CHICAGO 
A. C McCLURG AND COMPANY 

1898 



DT3I 



52022 



Copyright 
By a. C. McClurg and Co» 

A.D. 1895 



NOTE. 

Do my readers know what is meant by a " short 
yarn " ? It is the nautical phrase for a story that 
has been broken off short, — a narrative that has 
never reached its legitimate conclusion. 

This book is a volume of ''short yarns." They 
will probably be found to have their ends somewhere 
in the coming century. Meantime it seems well to 
know something of the beginnings of what in years 
to come may interest the world exceedingly. 

" Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth Century " 
has been a vast subject to be crowded into the limits 
which I have allowed myself in this series. If I am 
told by my critics that my book is deficient in histor- 
ical perspective, I can only reply: "You are right; 
but my aim has been to tell only what interested my- 
self, and what I hoped might be interesting to other 
people. I therefore have put many persons, events, 
and other matters into the foreground, which, if I 
aimed to be an historian, I ought to have relegated 
to a less prominent position." 

Almost every chapter of the book forms a narra- 
tive by itself. It was nearly as hard to write as 

3 



4 " NOTEr 

would be a history of the United States with no ref- 
erence to our General Government. 

The chapters on Uganda, South Africa, and the 
French in Central Africa, were especially bewilder- 
ing ; but I have had good material, and only hope I 
may have succeeded in making clear what seemed a 
Dark Forest in history before it had been penetrated 
and explored. 

E. W. L. 

BONNYWOOD, Howard Co., Md., 
September, 1895. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 

I. Mehemet Ali 

II. Arabi Pasha 

III. Gordon and the Mahdi . 

IV. The Captives of the Mahdi . 
V. Livingstone and Stanley . 

VI. Darkest Africa 

VII. Uganda 

VIII. The War in Abyssinia . . 

IX. Zanzibar 

X. The Barbary States 

XI. Liberia, and Maryland's own Colony 

XII. England's Little Wars . 

XIII. Diamond Fields and Gold Mines . 

XIV. Rhodesia 

XV. The French in Africa 

XVI. Madagascar 



PAGE 

9 
35 

66 

96 

123 

153 
189 
227 
250 
266 
290 
321 

345 
361 

390 
425 



Index 



441 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



David Livingstone .......... Frontispiece 

Mehemet Ali . . - To face page 12 

Ibrahim Pasha 22 

General Sir Garnet Wolseley 54 

Sir Samuel Baker 70 

General Gordon 84 

The Mahdi 96 

Father Ohrwalder 106 

Henry Moreland Stanley 130 

Emin Pasha 154 

Tippu Tib 174 

Captain F. D. Lugard 208 

General Sir Robert Napier 244 

Captain William Bainbridge 272 

Commodore Edward Preble 276 

Dr. James Hall- 296 

Cetywayo 522 

Prince Louis Napoleon 336 

Cecil John Rhodes 362 

Abdel Kader 394 

Paul du Chaillu .418 

Queen Ranavalona HI 432 

Charles de Freycinet 436 

MAPS. 

Political Divisions of Africa .... To face page 8 

Central Africa o 124 

South Africa .,<,,.».... 346 



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EUROPE IN AFRICA 



IN 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



CHAPTER I. 

MEHEMET ALT. 

WHILE one morning preparing to begin this sketch of 
Europe in Africa, my eye fell upon the column of 
"Situations Wanted" in a local morning paper, and I read 
the advertisement of a young Swiss who desired a position 
as valet and interpreter, concluding with the words : " No 
objection to Africa. - 

Such an announcement could not have been possible in 
1822, the year when the reminiscences contained in this 
series of papers on the nineteenth century may be said to 
begin. 

South Africa was then only a field for missionary labors, 
or the watering station for great merchantmen upon their 
way to India ; West Africa, East Africa, and Central Africa 
were known only to the Portuguese and slave traders. The 
Africa that borders on the Mediterranean had severed its 
connection with Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire, 
and had sunk into that state of semi-barbarism which com- 
bines the vices of civilization with those of savagery. 

In 1895, Africa (a country of eleven million, nine hun- 
dred thousand square miles) is almost entirely under the so- 
called " protection " of various states of Europe, or belongs 

9 



10 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

to their '' spheres of influence." Only two and a half mill- 
ions of miles are as yet unappropriated. For weal or for 
woe, Africa is now part of the European international system ; 
the balance of power (the political police plan of Europe) 
influences its destinies from the Cape to the Mediterranean. 

"France since 1876 has increased her African lands eight-fold, 
Great Britain seven-fold ; Congo Free State, of a million of square 
miles, is a perfectly new creation ; both Germany and Italy have 
for the first time in their history taken up serious African respon- 
sibilities, and even Russia, not content with owning half-uninhab- 
ited Asia, has made some attempts to gain a foothold in Abyssinia. 
. . . True that at this date there are in most of the regions 
thus covered by proclamations only a few scattered outposts of 
European occupation ; still, for better or worse, these African 
regions, desert, littoral, or riverine, belong to Europe. . . . 
The map maker will be duly followed by the surveyor and engi- 
neer, and the minor details of France, Italy, Portugal, Germany, 
Great Britain, and Belgium in Africa will be worked out accord- 
ing to scale. At present the paths of explorers are simply thin 
lines, along which a little general knowledge of the countries and 
of the natives has been gained, and are mere flying survey-routes 
preparatory in every sense to the history-making epochs of the 
Continent, and its development in the succeeding century." 

Darkness gathered over Egypt after the fall of the Roman 
Empire, and it settled down on Northern Africa in the fif- 
teenth century about the same time that wondering Europe 
turned its eyes upon the Western World. But in the days 
of early Christianity, and subsequently in those of the Arabian 
philosophers and mathematicians of the Middle Ages, the in- 
fluence of lands in Africa that we now despise exceeds our 
estimation. To Greece, Africa had given arts, letters, and 
a taste for household luxury ; and through Greece, as the in- 
tellectual . mistress of Rome, had extended her influence 
over the whole civilized world. While what Christianity 
owes to Alexandria both before and after the Christian era, 
and to the North African churches westward on the shores of 
the Mediterranean, we are only now learning to appreciate. 

In the division of the Roman Empire into East and West, 
Egypt was assigned to the Byzantine emperors, under 



MEHEMET ALL 1 1 

whose weak administration it soon fell into decay. In 640, 
eight years after the death of Mohammed, his followers over- 
ran the country. Under the Abbasides (those caliphs to 
whose line both Haroun Alraschid and Saladin belonged) 
Egypt recovered a little of its prosperity ; its native popula- 
tion, however, whether fellah or Christian, was completely 
under the heel of the Arab and Saracen conquerors. One 
of the sultans of Egypt, at the close of the twelfth century, 
purchased from Genghis Khan, a conqueror who had over- 
run all Central Asia, twelve thousand youths, whom he ed- 
ucated as soldiers. These boys were, for the most part, 
Turks, Mingrehans, or Circassians. The plan of educating 
slaves for soldiers was subsequently adopted by the Turkish 
leader Othman, when he formed his corps of Janissaries. 
The captives purchased by Sultan Malek Salah were all 
forced to become Mohammedans, they were well trained, 
were stalwart, handsome men, and became a splendid body 
of cavalry. They were called Mamelukes, from the Arabic 
word memalik, a slave, but after the death of their first 
master they began to interfere in the affairs of government. 
Their power and their insubordination increased. They 
made no scruple of assassinating the reigning sultan of 
Egypt, and in 1254 made their own leader Ibegh, sultan 
in his room. It was a Mameluke sultan who soon after- 
wards opposed Saint Louis in Egypt ; and the Mamelukes 
retained their power 263 years. The place of sultan was 
awarded always to some acknowledged leader, but their 
sultans were many; for nearly all of them perished by 
assassination. The prophet Ezekiel, when Egypt was in 
the plenitude of her prosperity, foretold that she should 
be "abase kingdom," and for seven hundred years it has 
been true of her, as it has been of no other nation, — she 
has been ruled by slaves. 

The ranks of the Mamelukes were recruited, not from 
their own families, — for the Mamelukes had extraordinarily 
few descendants, — but by boys bought as slaves in Cir- 
cassia, or made prisoners of war, and educated to be 



12 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

soldiers. In 15 17 Sultan Selim I., the conqueror of Syria, 
elated by his triumphs, resolved to possess himself of Egypt. 
He attacked the Mamelukes, and laid siege to Cairo. 
When his conquest was completed, he left in Egypt a 
Turkish pasha as its governor, but allowed its twenty-four 
provinces to be still governed by Mameluke Beys.^ 

The Turks ruled Egypt, nominally, for two hundred and 
twenty years ; but the power and wealth of the Mamelukes 
gave them in all things the direction of affairs ; the Turkish 
pasha simply did their bidding. They continually assassi- 
nated their leaders, among them a man named AH Bey, who 
had ruled Egypt with unUmited power from 1766 to 1773. 

In the year 1769, a year signalized by the birth of 
Napoleon, WelHngton, and Castlereagh, a man Httle their 
inferior in talent or in statesmanship was born at Cavalla, a 
town in Albania, the ancient Macedonia. His name was 
Mehemet Ah. He was of the Ottoman race, and therefore, 
although poor, was noble by heredity. Not that the Otto- 
man is ever of pure Turkish blood, and we know not the 
race of Mehemet All's mother. His father and a guardian 
uncle both died when he was in early boyhood ; and the 
orphan was cared for by the Turkish governor of Cavalla, 
who brought him up with his own son. The educational 
attainments of these boys did not, however, extend to the 
arts of reading and writing, which Mehemet Ali painfully 
endeavored to acquire when forty-five years old. 

But education by no means consists in a knowledge of the 
three Rs. Mehemet profoundly studied men, and the ways 
by which he might bend them to his will ; he also formed 
the acquaintance of a French merchant, a native of Mar- 
seilles, who opened his eyes to the extent and the advan- 
tages of European civiHzation. Mehemet AH is said never 
to have forsaken a friend, even when that friend had treated 

iThe title of Bey is now given to Egyptian colonels, but in the days 
of the power of the Mamelukes it was bestowed on governors. The 
Mamelukes considered themselves the aristocracy of Egypt, whether 
they were chiefs or simply soldiers. 




MEHEMET ALL 



ME HEME T ALL 1 3 

him with treachery ; and his gratitude was great to the 
foreigner who had enlarged his mind's horizon. When he 
held power and fortune in his hands, he endeavored to 
shower benefits upon this Frenchman's family. 

It is a little remarkable that while Mehemet's sympathies 
and his policy throughout his reign were French, his first 
step in life was directed to the furtherance of English 
interests in Egypt, and the destruction of the remnant of 
the French army deserted by Napoleon. 

Selim III., the Turkish sultan who had looked on with 
indifference when the French invaded Egypt, and attempted 
the destruction of the Mamelukes, was at last, by English 
influence, stirred into action. He raised an army to assist 
the EngHsh to drive out the French. The Albanian con- 
tingent, three thousand strong, was commanded by the son of 
the governor of Cavalla, who chose his old comrade Mehe- 
met (then deahng in tobacco) as his second in command. 
After a brief experience of the hardships of war in Egypt 
the young general returned home to Cavalla, and Mehemet 
Ali took command of the contingent. 

General Bonaparte when he quitted his Egyptian army 
(composed largely of the troops who had fought under him 
in his first campaign in Italy) left the brave Alsatian Gen- 
eral Kldber in command. KMber was assassinated shortly 
after by a Mohammedan fanatic, and General Abdullah 
Menou, who succeeded him, proved utterly incompetent. 
The discouragement of the troops under his command 
had been increased when a large force of English landed 
at Aboukir, reinforced by a considerable body of Turkish 
troops, of which the Albanian contingent formed part. The 
whole of the French army and its generals surrendered to 
the English and Turks, during the summer of 1801, shortly 
before a general peace was signed at Amiens. 

It then remained for the Mamelukes to get rid of the 
Turks and English. This they did by inducing the former 
to join them, and attacking the English in Alexandria, when 
a large body of British troops was forced to surrender, and 



14 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

four hundred severed heads of English soldiers are said to 
have dangled from the city walls. Egypt was then left at 
the mercy of its own factions. Four years of anarchy 
succeeded the expulsion of the French, during which the 
country was overrun by Mamelukes, Circassians, Albanians, 
Bedouins, Delhis (the Bashi-bazouks of the period), and 
Mograbins, all armed, all bent on plundering the native 
population. 

It would be little interesting to enter into an account of 
the ups and downs of fortune among these various armed 
bands of mutineers and robbers. In 1805 the Porte, forced 
to side with one party or one chief, took the side of its own 
Albanian troops, and made Mehemet Ali, their commander, 
its Egyptian viceroy, exacting, however, as the price of this 
distinction, that he should make an expedition against the 
Wahabees in Arabia. 

The Wahabees were a sect of reforming Mohammedans, 
followers of Abd el Wahab, which means Servant of the 
Bountiful. The Arabs have always held the Ottoman Turks 
to be lax and corrupt Mohammedans. Abd el Wahab, 
born in the heart of the Negid, in 1691, thought that the 
rehgion taught by the Prophet had degenerated into mere 
idolatry, with its invocations of saints, and pilgrimages to 
shrines. He objected also to the use of tobacco, hashish, 
and intoxicating drinks, especially tobacco ; also to the 
wearing of silk and gold. He was, in short, a protesting 
Mussulman, and he hated Turks as cordially as anti-Papists 
in Queen Elizabeth's time hated the Spaniards. He died in 
1787, and was succeeded by his son, the Sheikh Mohammed, 
who, without taking the title of Mahdi, claimed a divine mis- 
sion. He taught, as the Prophet Mohammed had taught, 
the existence of one God, the maker of heaven and earth, 
the rewarder of the good, the punisher of the evil ; but he, 
rejected the legends contained in the Koran, especially those 
concerning the Prophet, whom he considered only as a man 
beloved of God. This protestantism he forced upon ortho- 
dox Mohammedans, by the same means that the Prophet 



MEHEME T ALT. 1 5 

had employed to force his doctrines on idolaters ; " conver- 
sion or death " being the sole alternatives. 

The Wahabees soon became dominant in Southern Arabia. 
It is said that their military leader, Abdul Aziz, could bring 
into the field one hundred and twenty thousand armed men. 
Their soldiers were all cavalry. They spread from the Red 
Sea to the Persian Gulf, reached several parts of Asiatic Tur- 
key, and plundered and defiled the shrine of Hussein, the 
martyred son of Ali, the most highly venerated saint among 
the Persians, before any measures were taken by the Porte 
to put a stop to their devastations and conversions. 

In 1 80 1 an expedition was sent against them from Bagdad, 
but their success in opposing it emboldened them to attack 
Mecca, where they put the Sherif Ghalib to flight, and 
seized upon the holy city. They destroyed many of its 
religious monuments, and carried off immense treasures. 
Emboldened by such success, they attacked caravans of pil- 
grims, got possession of the Mahmel, a splendid chest in 
which the Sultan sent yearly offerings to the shrines of the 
Prophet, gained possession of Medina, and dictated terms 
to the Porte, on which alone they would permit pilgrims to 
visit the holy places. 

By this time Abdul Aziz had been murdered by a Persian, 
and his son Saood II. was the Wahabite leader. He 
governed like one of the early caliphs, keeping up war on 
all sides with all who would not submit to him ; but es- 
pecially he fought the Turks. He had a negro general 
named Hark, who carried his arms across the Euphrates, 
and threatened Damascus. At this point England inter- 
fered, for Wahabee pirates had begun to interrupt her trade 
with India by infesting the Persian Gulf, and in 1809 a 
considerable force was sent from Bombay to protect 
the imaun of Muscat. Pressure was then brought by 
the English to bear upon the Sultan, and its result was the 
stipulation made with the new Pasha of Egypt, that he 
should unciertake the punishment and extirpation of the 
Wahabees. 



1 6 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

Mehemet Ali, however, dared not undertake an expedition 
beyond the bounds of his own Pashahc, leaving such a force 
as the Mamelukes behind. He summoned all their Beys to 
the citadel at Cairo, to witness the investiture of his son, 
Toussein Bey, with the command of the forces to be led into 
Arabia. Four hundred and seventy Mamelukes obeyed his 
summons. As they were leaving his presence, where they 
had been graciously received, and, mounted and armed, 
were passing through a narrow passage to an outer court, 
fire was opened on them with cannon. Every man was 
killed but one. He leaped his horse over the parapet, and 
when his body was searched for shortly after, the mangled 
carcass of his horse was found, but no trace of the man who 
had owned him. Here is Mehemet All's own account of 
the matter, when he frequently in conversations with Lesseps 
alluded to the massacre. " He said he saw nothing of what 
took place, but was so near that sounds from the court 
reached him. He laughed at Horace Vernet's picture, in 
which he is represented as tranquilly looking on. ' So far 
from being tranquil,' he said, '• I was in the utmost anxiety ; 
I was not sure of my troops j the Mamelukes had many 
friends among them, and if they could have forced the gates 
of the enclosure, or if Emin Bey, who blindfolded his horse 
with his turban, and forced it to leap the parapet, had been 
followed, I might have been lost. I had horses at the 
postern of the citadel ready to fly for my hfe in case of 
failure.' In fact," said M. de Lesseps, " he contracted on 
that day a little nervous cough which he never lost." 

Mehemet Ali is also reported to have said, what is un- 
questionably the truth : " Had I not destroyed them, they 
would have destroyed me." 

More than one of the Europeans who had served under 
Mehemet Ali said, long after his death, to Mr. Senior : 
" Mehemet Ali employed cruelty, but only as a means to an 
end. He was naturally kind-hearted, and the object of his 
reign was to make Egypt great and powerful." 

A few days after the massacre, an old woman, closely 



MEHEMET ALL 1 7 

veiled, presented herself before him. She said she came to 
ask his clemency for Emin Bey. The Pasha assured her 
that so brave a man might count on his protection, when, 
throwing back her veil, she disclosed the features of Emin 
Bey himself. 

A general massacre of Mamelukes took place, however, 
throughout Egypt. Some escaped to the north and joined 
the Wahabees ; some escaped south, and found refuge in the 
Soudan. Toussein Pasha was despatched to Arabia ; but 
his success was not as great as his father had anticipated. 
The Arabs defeated him in 181 2. But Medina and Mecca 
fell into his hands in consequence of the treachery of Ghalib, 
the Sherif of Mecca. The keys of the holy cities were then 
solemnly delivered to the Sultan at Constantinople, and re- 
ceived with great rejoicing. 

In 1 81 3 Mehemet Ali himself came to Arabia and 
remained eighteen months in Medina. The Wahabees, how- 
ever, were by no means subdued. Toussein again fought 
them after the departure of his father, and concluded a treaty 
of peace with them, which was disavowed by the Sultan. 
Toussein soon after died of the plague, and his father was 
almost heart-broken under the bereavement. He sent 
another son, however, who was subsequently well known 
through all the world as Ibrahim Pasha, to complete the 
subjugation of the heretic Wahabees. These were already 
distracted by disputes among their leaders, and at last sub- 
mitted to the nominal sovereignty of the Sultan. They 
occupy a broad belt of land running from the Red Sea to the 
Persian Gulf, and from time to time, when we read of 
troubles in Yemen, the meaning of the telegram is that there 
is an outbreak among the remnant of the Wahabees. 

After 1818 Mehemet Ali, finding himself securely in pos- 
session of his Pashalic, set himself to improve and civiHze 
his people. 

He had in all seventy-two children, but only ten lived to 
grow up, and he was deeply attached to them. The mortality 
in harems among the children of slave mothers, who are 
c 



1 8 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

always confided to the care (?) of the legitimate wives, is 
appalling. 

His sons were Ismail, Ibrahim, Toussein, Said, Hussein, 
Abdallah, Halim, and Mehemet AH. Of three of these — 
Hussein, Abdallah, and Mehemet AH — history knows noth- 
ing. Ismail was barbarously assassinated in the Soudan. 
Ibrahim proved himself one of the great men of the nine- 
teenth century, succeeded his father, and reigned little more 
than two months. " If Ibrahim Pasha had lived," said those 
Europeans and Europeanly educated Egyptians who talked 
to Mr. Senior in 1855, about the troubles in Egypt, " the coun- 
try would have been very different from what it is now." 
Ibrahim, by the Turkish law of succession, was succeeded by 
his nephew, Abbas Pasha, the son of Toussein. Abbas was 
followed by his uncle Said ; Said, by the first Khedive, Ismail, 
the son of Ibrahim Pasha ; and, the law of succession having 
been changed, his successor was his son Tewfik, and Tewfik's 
son. Abbas II., is the present Khedive. 

The sons of Mehemet, and most of his grandsons, were 
sent to Europe for their education. They returned, speak- 
ing French like Frenchmen, with advanced ideas as to the 
material improvement of their country, and as to rehgion 
less Mohammedans thd^nphilosophes. 

Mehemet AU's rule in Egypt was that of a stern, hard 
man. He was determined to be obeyed. Notwithstanding 
severe exactions of forced labor on his public works, his 
sway was favorable to the fellaheen. He might oppress 
them, himself, but he protected them from the more galling 
exactions of their own sheikhs and the tax-gatherers. The 
great object of his reign, as I have said, was to make Egypt 
rich and powerful, though he often mistook the means, as 
better instructed sovereigns have frequently done. "He 
adopted," said one of his own officers, " the measures (often 
erroneous) which he sincerely thought the best, without scru- 
ple, without pity, without remorse, but he was not selfish." 
And Lesseps, who knew him well, and whose father for 
many years had been French Consul General in Egypt, thus 
described him : — 



ME HEME T ALL 1 9 

"Mehemet All's establishments were too great, not for the 
objects at which he aimed, but for the strength of the nation. 
He was a man of genius and of strong, unrelenting will. He 
proposed to himself to raise Egypt into a great country. For 
this purpose he stimulated his people to efforts that were ex- 
hausting, but they produced their effect. He made the country 
secure within, and formidable without. He gave to it improved 
agriculture and industry. He educated his sons and his grand- 
sons to follow his footsteps. When I returned last year [1854] 
to Egypt after seventeen years' absence, I was astonished at its 
progress. Egypt had passed from barbarism to civilization. . . . 
As a man of creative and administrative genius, I put Mehemet 
Ali very high ; indeed, I am not sure that I do not put him 
higher than Napoleon himself, if we take into account their com- 
parative advantages. Napoleon belonged to the most highly 
civilized nation on the Continent, and received the best educa- 
tion that nation could give. The storms of the Revolution had 
thrown to the surface the men most eminent for talents and for 
knowledge, and thus gave him the best assistants. He organ- 
ized France, improved its laws, restored its finances, and created 
the centralized system of administration, which, partly for good, 
and partly for evil, still subsists. But he had excellent materials, 
the civilization of ten centuries to work on, and excellent instru- 
ments to work with. Mehemet Ali had to create everything. 
He had almost to create himself." 

Such is the judgment of one great man upon another. 
It may be interesting to see the parallel drawn by Renan 
between Mehemet Ali and King Herod. 

"Herod was a splendid Arab, intelligent, skilful, brave, 
strong of body, inured to fatigue, and much given to women. 
Mehemet Ali in our own day gives us perfectly his measure 
and his limit. Capable of everything, even of baseness, 
when the thing in hand was to reach an object he had at 
heart (in Herod's case always some object of his own ambi- 
tion). He had a true sentiment of greatness, but he was 
completely out of tune with the country he was to govern. 
. . . Herod saw the world as it is, and being of a coarse 
nature, he loved it. Religion, philosophy, patriotism, had no 
meaning for him ; he was in short a fine animal — a lion, 
whom one admires for his massive throat and his thick mane, 
without expecting any moral sense from him.*' 



20 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

This is a fine passage, but it is not just to Mehemet Ali, 
who was morally far in advance of King Herod, as Renan 
depicts that monarch in his History of the People of Israel. 

Mehemet Ali disciplined his army. He surrounded 
himself with Christians. He sent many hundreds of young 
men to be brought up in Europe. He executed public 
works of inestimable value to his adopted country. He 
established schools in all the towns and villages, and insti- 
tutions for the higher education of officers, although knowl- 
edge was so unpopular among his subjects that instances 
were known of mothers blinding their children to save them 
from being forced to receive instruction. 

Mehemet had, however, no interest in what we now call 
Egyptology. The monuments of Egypt's past greatness 
were nothing to him. A story has been circulated which 
ascribes to his grandson. Abbas Pasha, a design for utiliz- 
ing the Great Pyramid, but we have the authority of M. de 
Lesseps for saying that the real Vandal was Mehemet Ali 
himself. 

The great scheme of the Barrage, which was started in 
Mehemet's time, and remains to be completed in our own 
day, nearly cost us the Great Pyramid. 

"Mehemet Ali sent for me one day," says Lesseps, "and 
said, 'This Barrage threatens to be expensive. I think we 
can diminish the cost by using the Pyramid for our quarry. 
Ascertain for me what would be the expense of transporting 
the stones of the Great Pyramid from Gizeh to the point of 
the Delta.' 'Oh! ' said I to myself, 'this is the scheme of 
somebody who is to be entrusted with the affair, and intends 
to sell half the stones. ' I made a very conscientious report 
©n the expense of removing the Pyramid, and also on that 
of quarrying the stones in Toora, the finest quarries in the 
world. Happily it turned out that the latter experiment 
was by far the less expensive. But if I had not been there, 
or if he had gone to work without consulting me, which, 
however, would not have been easy, the Pyramid would 
have been pulled down. The people who proposed it 



MEHEMET ALL 21 

cared nothing for expense; it was for them merely an expe- 
dient for plunder." 

"Did Mehemet Ali learn from contact with Europeans 
any respect for the monuments of Egypt?" asked Mr. 
Senior, to whom Lesseps was relating this story. " Not in 
the least," was the answer. "He remained till his death, 
in this respect, a mere rude Turk. No man destroyed 
more of them. He pulled down the temples of Abydos, 
of Arsinoe, and many others, to build his manufactories. 
At last we persuaded him that this would render him 
unpopular in Europe, and he ordered the practice to be 
discontinued. But, as he cared nothing for art or for 
antiquity, he did not look to the execution of his orders; 
he did not punish the breach of them, and the destruction 
went on during all his reign. Abbas Pasha was as igno- 
rant and careless. It was not until Said Pasha's accession 
that it was stopped." 

Meantime in the East a great crisis was approaching. 
Mehemet Ali, always interested in the affairs of Europe, 
and keenly alive to the signs of the times, watched his 
opportunity for acquiring Syria. His ambition seems to 
have been to found a great empire, which, like that of the 
Seleucid^, three centuries before Christ, should comprise 
Asia Minor and Syria, Egypt and Arabia, and stretch 
from the Levant to the Euphrates, from the equator to 
the shores of the Dardanelles. But great ambitions in the 
nineteenth century have not free scope as they had in 
the days of Alexander, Caesar, Genghis Khan, or Tamer- 
lane. They are curbed by the international policy of 
Europe, whose keynote is the preservation of the balance 
of power. The Sultan was under the protection of Eng- 
land, and his empire was not to be weakened, lest Con- 
stantinople should become the prey of Russia, and that 
great rival, whose naval power England has long learned 
to dread, should acquire a free entrance to the Mediterra- 
nean Sea. 

The mutual jealousy of France and England has led to 



22 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

innumerable troubles and complications in the East, and to 
much of the misgovernment and misery still prevailing in 
lands whose coasts are washed by the Mediterranean. But 
for this we might have had no Armenian question to puzzle 
diplomatists, and rouse the sympathies of Christendom, but 
a tolerant and progressive government in the East, willing 
to go hand in hand with the nations of Western Europe in 
paths of progress and civilization; a government favorable 
to communication with India, both by sea and land. 

It is not probable that Mehemet Ali wished to become 
himself the Sultan at Constantinople. The Padishah, by 
right of birth, is Caliph; that is, the temporal head of the 
Mohammedan faith, endowed with a sort of sanctity by 
virtue of his office. To all this Mehemet Ali could have 
advanced no claim. 

During the revolution in Greece, the Pasha of Cairo, as 
he was then called (for pashas, like bishops, take their 
titles from the chief cities in their jurisdiction — not from 
the surrounding territory), sent large bodies of Egyptian 
troops, well disciplined and well equipped, to aid the Sultan. 
They were under the command of his brave son, Ibrahim 
Pasha, and great was the devastation they committed in the 
Morea. His fleet was less successful than his land forces; 
it was worsted in several engagements with the Greeks, 
and was finally destroyed in 1827 by the allied fleets at 
Navarino. When the war ended, English ships transported 
Ibrahim Pasha and his army home. 

In the recently discovered correspondence between the 
sovereigns of Egypt and Syria, far back in the early days 
of Hittite, Assyrian, and Egyptian civilization, we find 
frequent complaints from the Pharaohs that large bands of 
their peasants had escaped into Syria. The same thing 
happened four thousand years or so later, when some thou- 
sands of the fellaheen, "disgusted with the endless and 
systematic exactions of the Egyptian government, crossed 
the deserts which separate Africa from Asia, and sought 
refuge in the territory of the Pasha of Acre." This was in 




IBRAHIM PASHA. 



MEHEMET ALL 2J 

183 1, when Europe was too much interested in its own 
revolutions to pay much attention to the affairs of the East. 

Mehemet Ali, who, indeed, needed his people to com- 
plete by forced labor the great works he was carrying on 
in Egypt (works, it must be confessed, all calculated to 
improve the country, and multiply its resources), demanded 
his subjects back again. The Pasha of Acre declined to 
deport them. Whereupon Mehemet fitted out a large force 
against him, commanded by Ibrahim Pasha. There are 
no good harbors except Acre, on the coast of Palestine. 
Herod had attempted to create one at Csesarea, but time 
has long since destroyed his works, and Acre continues to 
be the key of Syria. The sea must always be the base of 
land operations in that country, because it alone can fur- 
nish the contending parties with supplies. Napoleon said 
that had he taken Acre he would have changed the face of 
the world. 

Ibrahim Pasha — by nature a great general, and by close 
study well acquainted with the art of war — began in 
January, 1832, the siege of Acre, supported by a fleet 
which supplied him with ammunition and stores. 

The Porte, roused at length to the dangers of the situa- 
tion, sent three armies against Ibrahim, who raised the siege 
of Acre, and, marching against the Turkish troops, defeated 
one force after the other. He then resumed operations 
against Acre, and took it at the close of May, 1832. 

He next fought a brilliant battle with the Turks, in 
which twenty-five thousand Egyptians encountered thirty- 
five thousand of the enemy, and by superior generalship 
and discipline gained a complete victory. He then took 
Aleppo, and there for a few weeks rested his weary soldiers. 

It is needless to mention in detail his continuous suc- 
cesses. In a few months the whole seaboard of Syria, 
from Egypt to the Taurus, with the Pashalics of Acre, 
Tripoli, and Aleppo, had fallen into his hands. Then 
Sultan Mahmoud, who was at that time steeped in de- 
bauchery and drunkenness, was roused to make a desperate 



24 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

effort to avert the dismemberment of his empire. He 
placed a fresh army of well-disciplined troops under the 
Grand Vizier Reschid Pasha. On December 22, 1832, 
was fought the decisive battle of Konieh. Ibrahim, after 
his victory, was asked : " How far do you propose to ad- 
vance?" "As far as I am understood in Arabic," was his 
answer. 

Had Ibrahim followed up his victory, he could easily 
have taken Constantinople. Sultan Mahmoud's reforms, 
and his massacre of the Janissaries in 1826, had made 
him very unpopular among his subjects, and supported by 
the Egyptian troops, revolt might have been general. The 
Sultan sent earnest supplications to France and England to 
support him against his vassal; but France was then occu- 
pied by the task of putting her internal affairs in order 
after the Revolution of 1830, and in regulating those of the 
new kingdom of Belgium, and England was in the throes 
that preceded and followed the passage of the Reform 
Bill. Both declined to interfere between the Porte and 
the Pasha. Then Russia was appealed to. She had evi- 
dently expected this, and had everything in a state of 
preparation — an army on the Pruth, and a fleet all ready 
at Sebastopol. 

But swift as had been Russia's response to the Sultan's 
cry for assistance, the crisis had passed before the Russian 
troops arrived. The French government had intervened, and 
proposals of accommodation had been made to Ibrahim, 
which led to a cessation of hostilities. These terms were 
the cession to the Egyptian prince of the Pashalics in 
Syria and the district of Adana, and Egypt in perpetuity 
to Mehemet Ali. But Mehemet Ali passionately refused to 
ratify this treaty. Syria and Egypt in perpetuity were not 
enough. He wanted Asia Minor; and,- indeed, the inhabi- 
tants of Asia Minor, impressed by the administrative abili- 
ties of Ibrahim Pasha, were anxious to be placed under his 
government. 

Mehemet Ali, however, at last finding that if Ibrahim 



MEHEMET ALL 2$ 

pushed his conquests further, he was likely to be con- 
fronted by the whole power of Russia, declared himself 
willing to accept the almost independent governments of 
Egypt and Syria, with the Pashalics of Jerusalem, Tripoli, 
Aleppo, and Damascus, and the government of Aden, which 
included the charge of the holy cities. Amnesty was also 
stipulated for all subjects of the Porte in Anatolia, who 
had taken part in the rebellion, and in the words of the 
Sultan's firman, these great concessions were declared to 
be granted " in consideration of the assurances of fidelity 
and devotion given to me by the Governor of Egpyt, and 
his son Ibrahim Pasha." This firman was dated May 6, 
1833, after which Ibrahim took quiet possession of his 
government of Syria. 

To get rid of the Russians, of whom a large force was 
encamped on a mountain on the Asiatic shore, within 
sight of Constantinople, was a less easy task than to pacify 
Ibrahim. It was accomplished, however, by the Treaty of 
Unkiar Skelessi, by which Russia gained all, and more than 
all, that she could have acquired by a successful war. 

It was a secret treaty, and contained a super-secret 
clause. The less secret portions of the treaty soon became 
known to diplomatists. They provided that for eight years 
a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, should exist 
between Russia and Turkey, either party to assist the other 
with fleet and army in case of need. But the secret clause 
of the treaty, which was not discovered by the cabinets of 
Europe for some time, was as follows : — 

"To prevent any embarrassment that might arise to the 
Porte from furnishing material assistance to Russia in case 
of attack, the Ottoman Porte shall be bound, in virtue of 
its obligations toward Russia, to close the Straits of the 
Dardanelles — that is to say, not to permit any ship of war 
of any foreign power to enter those Straits, under any pre- 
text whatever. This separate and secret article shall have 
the same force as if it had been inserted word for word in 
the public and patent treaty." 



26 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

This meant that in case of war, or any threatening of 
war, between Russia and any other power, the Gate of the 
Dardanelles was closed to Russia's enemies, but might be 
opened to her own warships as the ally of the Sultan. 
The Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi has been considered by 
historians the prologue to the Crimean War. 

Peace lasted but a short time in the Levantine countries, 
only long enough to give evidence of the superiority of 
Ibrahim Pasha's adminstration to that of the pashas ordi- 
narily despatched to those countries from Constantinople. 
In those days France and Russia were bitterly hostile to 
each other. The Emperor Nicholas had many reasons for 
hating Louis Philippe and his family. France posed in 
Europe as head of the Revolutionary party; Russia, as the 
bulwark of Legitimacy. Besides this, all through the 
present century Egypt has been a bone of contention 
between England and France. At this hour England has 
the bone, but France will never cease to worry her. The 
jealousy of these rival powers acts as a brake on all meas- 
ures of improvement and of progress. British doggedness 
may carry them into effect, but it is always under diffi- 
culties and disadvantages. 

The importance of influence in Egypt to Great Britain 
is immense. It secures the highway to India. The inter- 
est of France in Egypt is sentimental, rather than material. 
Her Oriental possessions are of small account, and her pos- 
session of Algeria and Tunis, besides the ports on her own 
coast, gives her all the advantages in the Mediterranean 
that she can reasonably desire. The sentimental side of 
a political question has, however, always appealed to the 
heart of the French people. Egypt was a land brought 
into prominence after six hundred years of oblivion, by 
its conquest by Napoleon, ostensibly undertaken as an 
offset to the loss of French colonies in the West Indies, 
conquered by Great Britain. In the end, the glory of 
the English arms eclipsed that of the French. Acre, de- 
fended by Sir Sidney Smith, turned back Napoleon; the 



MEHEMET ALL 2/ 

French fleet was annihilated by Nelson at the mouths of the 
Nile, and Menou's remnant of the French forces, having 
surrendered to the English, were brought back in English 
ships to the French shores. Frenchmen burned to turn 
the tables on their rival, but up to 1839 ^^ opportunity 
seemed to arise. In that year the smouldering enmity 
between the Padishah and Mehemet Ali broke again into 
flame, and France and England took part in the quarrel, — 
France, under the leadership of M. Thiers, as the adviser 
and ally of Mehemet Ali; England under that of Lord 
Palmerston, as the friend of the Turks. In vain the allied 
powers declared their intention of taking part against 
whichever side should begin hostilities. Sultan Mahmoud, 
strong in his treaty of alliance with Russia, which, in case 
of war, would put her forces and her fleets at his disposal, 
hurried his armies into the field. 

"He publicly declared that he preferred any event to 
the present uncertain state of things; that he could no 
longer tolerate the insolence of his rebellious vassal, who, 
trampling under foot the principles of Islamism, had not 
scrupled to expel by force the guards placed by his 
sovereign round the tomb of the Prophet; who had 
refused of his own authority the passage of Suez to Great 
Britain, a power in alliance with the Porte; had done 
everything he could to prevent the English getting posses- 
sion of Aden; and had excited rebellion in the provinces 
of Bassorah and Bagdad, which formed part of the Turkish 
Empire." 

A great battle took place near the Euphrates. The 
Turkish army far outnumbered that of Ibrahim; neverthe- 
less it was defeated. Many of the Turkish soldiers had 
not forgotten or forgiven the massacre of the Janissaries, 
and some officers had taken bribes from the agents of Ibra- 
him Pasha. In the height of the combat many battalions 
went over to the enemy. 

Ibrahim's victory was decisive; amongst other spoils 
that fell into his hands was the Turkish commander- in- 



28 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

chief's insignia of command, set in diamonds, and recently 
sent him by the Sultan. 

Sultan Mahmoud never heard of this defeat. Worn out 
by rage, disappointment, and excesses, he died before the 
news reached him, and was succeeded by his son. Sultan 
Abdul Medjid. On learning this the whole Ottoman fleet 
went. over to Mehemet Ali. Thus all the successes of the 
war were on the side of Egypt, — and it seemed unjust and 
unbearable to Mehemet Ali that the Allied European 
Powers should insist that he, the conqueror, should give 
back to the Sultan advantages wrested from the Porte six 
years before. The Sultan's ultimatum was that he would 
give to the Pasha, and his descendants in the direct 
order of succession, the administration of the whole of 
Egypt, and, for his lifetime, the government of the southern- 
part of Syria with the Pashalic of Acre. The acceptance 
of these terms was to take place within ten days, and the 
Turkish fleet to be delivered to the Sultan. 

Mehemet Ali nearly died of fury when these terms were 
made known to him, and swore that rather than accept them 
he would overturn his empire, and bury himself in its 
^uins. 

Great Britain supported the views of the Porte, and 
proceeded to reduce the Sultan's rebellious vassal to sub- 
mission. Ibrahim Pasha was driven from the seaboard 
of Syria; Alexandria was bombarded, burned, and evacu- 
ated by the Egyptians. Admiral Sir Charles Napier, a 
dashing fighter and an experienced seaman, bombarded and 
took the Fort of Saint Jean D'Acre, with only two small 
steamers. When this news was received in France a uni- 
versal cry for war with England arose. But Louis Philippe 
and his cabinet, in which M. Thiers had been succeeded 
by M. Guizot, were men of peace. War with England 
might have shaken the king's throne, and overthrown his 
dynasty ; in any event it could not but be costly. The war 
cloud blew over. Mehemet Ali was sacrificed to the 
entente cordiale between France and England. The French 



ME HE MET ALL 



29 



fleet was withdrawn from the Levant, and Louis Philippe and 
his cabinet set themselves to the hard task of calming the 
excitement of the Parisians.^ 

The total defeat of the Egyptians, both by land and sea, 
had rendered peace imperative, and the French cabinet, 
now in accord with Turkey and Great Britain, drew up 
fresh proposals. 

I. That the Straits of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles 
should be closed to all ships of war without distinction. 

II. That the Pashalic of Egypt in hereditary right 
should be secured to Mehemet Ali and his descendants. 

III. That guarantees should be given for the good treat- 
ment of Christians in Syria. 

Besides this the Turkish fleet was to be delivered to 
the Sultan, one-fourth of the revenues of Egypt were to 
be paid him in lieu of tribute, and Ibrahim Pasha was 
to evacuate Syria. 

Mehemet AH, now convinced that no further hope of 
success remained to him, agreed to these terms proposed 
by the Sultan, and now backed by the Allied Powers. 
Tearing his hair and his white beard as he signed the 
terms of accommodation, he sent orders for the evacu- 
ation of Syria and Crete, and restored the Turkish fleet to 
the new Sultan. 

Thus ended the great dispute which left Mehemet Ali 
despoiled of Syria, but hereditary sovereign of Egypt. 
Thereafter his connection with European politics was 
ended, and he had only to devote himself to the internal 
improvements of Egypt which he had so much at heart. 
These improvements were so numerous that it is hard to 
particularize them. 

He became the great trader of Egypt j all its commerce 

1 We were in Paris during this excitement. We had turned back 
from the frontier of Italy that my father might be on hand to offer 
his services to the Admiralty in case of hostihties. Day after day we 
lived with our trunks packed for swift departure for England; our 
plans contingent on the conflicting opinions of the press and each 
day's leading articles. E.W.L. 



30 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

passed through his hands. Besides fleets and armies, he 
created telegraphs (on the old semaphore system), and 
Congreve rockets were prepared, agriculture was extended, 
breeds of sheep and horses were improved, the great Mah- 
moudieh Canal was dug, connecting Cairo with Alexandria ; 
olive and mulberry trees were planted, sugar refineries and 
manufactories of gunpowder were established, vaccination 
and laws of quarantine were introduced, and schools of all 
grades were founded. 

Here let me introduce a picture of the old man who 
thenceforth was styled the Viceroy of Egypt, as he appeared 
to an English traveller four years after the bitter disappoint- 
ment he must have sustained when he suffered checkmate 
in the game of his ambition : — 

" Mehemet AH is, after all, the true wonder of Egypt. A Turk 
without a single prejudice of the Turk, — an Oriental eager for 
the adoption of all the knowledge, the arts, and the comforts of 
Europe, — a Mohammedan allowing perfect religious toleration, 
— and a despot moderating his despotism by the manliest zeal 
for the improvement of his country. He affected nothing of the 
privacy and little of the usual pomp of rajahs and sultans. He 
was constantly seen driving through Alexandria in a low berlin 
with four horses. The berlin was lined with crimson silk, and 
there, squatting on one of the low broad seats sat the Viceroy. 
Two of his officers generally sat opposite to him, and by his side 
his grandson, a handsome child between eight and nine years 
old, of whom he was remarkably fond. Like that of many other 
eminent men, his stature is below the middle size. His counte- 
nance is singularly intelligent, his nose aquiline, and his eye 
quick and penetrating. He wears his beard long, thick, and in 
all its whiteness. Years have so little affected him that he is re- 
garded as a better life than his son Ibrahim — his general, who 
is confessedly a man of great ability. But his second son Said 
Pasha, the half-brother of Ibrahim, is regarded as especially in- 
heriting the talents of his father. He is an accomplished man, 
speaks English and French fluently, seems to enter into his 
father's views with great intelligence, and exhibits a manliness 
and ardor of character which augur well for his country. But 
the appearance of the pasha in his berlin is not without attendant 
state. In front ride attendants caracolling in all directions. 
Behind the carriage rides his courier mounted on a dromedary, 



ME HE MET ALL 3 1 

ready to start with despatches. He is followed by the pipe- 
bearer, the pipe-bearer is followed by a man mounted on a mule, 
and carrying a light for the pipe of the pasha. The cavalcade is 
closed by a troop of officers mounted on strong horses." 

Mehemet Ali died in 1849. For eighteen months before 
his death his mind had failed, and his son Ibrahim Pasha 
governed in his stead. Mehemet made a journey to Naples 
in order to meet there a French physician who was highly 
esteemed for his treatment of the insane, but he returned 
home not benefited by the consultation. Some persons 
believed that his illness had been caused by a potion admin- 
istered to him in his harem by one of his daughters, who 
conceived it to be an elixir of youth. This story, however, 
is hardly probable. Mehemet Ali always prophesied that 
he should survive his son Ibrahim. Ibrahim always believed 
that he would govern Egypt ; both prophesies were fulfilled. 
When Mehemet, in 1848, became hopelessly insane, Ibrahim, 
as he was entitled to do, assumed the viceroyalty. 

" It was in summer ; he exposed himself to the sun, and 
to cool himself poured a couple of bottles of iced cham- 
pagne into a goblet, and drank it off. This produced an 
attack of pleurisy. He recovered, however, sufficiently to 
go to Constantinople to receive his investiture from the 
Sultan ; but the journey produced a fresh attack, spitting 
of blood followed, and he died soon after his return to 
Egypt after a reign of about sixty-two days." 

Ibrahim was succeeded, according to Mohammedan law, 
by his nephew Abbas Pasha, son of his brother Toussoun, a 
man well calculated to suffer all the great works of his 
grandfather to fall into ruin. He was coarse minded, 
cruel, debauched, and ignorant. He had indeed a taste for 
economy, but his economy in the majority of instances was 
misapplied. Wanting money for his pleasures, he cut down 
Mehemet All's establishments ignorantly and rashly. He 
built a great number of palaces, for his economy did not 
consist in the contraction of his personal expenses. As he 
lived in constant fear of assassination, these palaces were 



32 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

contrived with many dark corridors, behind whose thin walls 
men could be stationed to spring out on any suspicious 
person. He was almost inaccessible to Europeans, for whom 
he entertained a great dislike, and he knew no language in 
which he could converse with them. His early years had 
been passed in the harem, and he seems to have been 
almost the only male member of Mehemet All's family who 
had never been abroad. The French he particularly dis- 
hked, he was somewhat more tolerant of the English. Mr. 
Senior asked a gentleman who had been long in Egypt 
what were the worst parts of Abbas Pasha's administration, 
and received this answer : — 

" Nothing could be worst where everything was as bad as 
it could be. He was cruel, he was extortionate, he was igno- 
rant ; he hated knowledge, he hated improvements, he hated 
civilization ; he hated every one whom he suspected to be 
the friend of any of these things. He was the exaggeration 
of all that is detestable in the Turkish barbarian." 

Abbas left many debts behind him at his death, debts 
that were paid off by his uncle and successor, Said Pasha. 
He paid nobody, it is said, whom he could avoid paying ; 
he hoarded to make fortunes for his family. 

Dismal stories were told of the cruelties of Abbas in his 
harem. It is a well-authenticated fact that he sewed up 
with his own hands the mouth of a slave girl, whom, contrary 
to his orders, he found smoking within the harem precincts, 
and left her to die of hunger. 

He died very suddenly, July 12, 1854, in one of his smaller 
palaces, and his death was concealed for several days. 
Some thought he perished by order of the Sultan, but the 
account generally accepted is that given by Mougil Bey, 
a distinguished French engineer in the Egyptian service, to 
Mr. Senior : — 

"Although the surgeons who examined the body certified that 
he died of apoplexy, — and that is the statement published by the 
government, — I know that he was murdered. The very sur- 
geons who signed that certificate admitted to me that it was 



MEHEMET ALL 33 

false, and that the body bore unquestionable marks of violence. 
His own cousin Ahmed Pasha told me that his own servants saw 
the marks. He himself did not wish to be mixed up in the affair, 
and would not look at them. It seems that Abbas, some months 
before his death, had severely bastinadoed two youths belonging 
to his guard; that they were on duty on the 12th of July, 1854, 
and that for some fault he had threatened them with a repetition, 
which would probably have killed them. They formed their 
plan as they were at watch over him at his palace at Benha at 
night. They attempted to suffocate him in his sleep with a pil- 
low ; but he struggled and threw it off. Then they strangled 
him. They took the money he had near him and his signet ring, 
with which they signed an order directing them to proceed to 
Cairo, and they obtained horses by means of it. One of them 
fled to Suez, and has not since been heard of; the other rode to 
Cairo, gave his horse to be held at the gate, walked on and offered 
a Frenchman three thousand francs if he would conceal him. It 
was refused, and he took refuge in an Arab Ijouse, to which he 
was traced. The Pasha's horse left at the gate connected him 
with the murder. He is still in the citadel of Cairo, but unpun- 
ished. He cannot be publicly accused of murdering a man who, 
according to the official statement, died of apoplexy. Abbas' 
family thought it might be possible to place II Hami Pasha, his 
son, a youth of about nineteen, on the throne, and for that pur- 
pose concealed the death for a couple of days. II Hami Pasha 
had gone to Alexandria on his way to make a tour in Europe. 
An attempt was made to stop him by a telegraphic despatch, but 
he had already left the port in the Viceroy's swift steam frigate. 
A vessel was sent after her, but in vain. Then the death was 
declared, and Said Pasha, the heir, was sent for. If II Hami had 
been on the spot, I think he might have succeeded, but recollec- 
tions of his father would not have assisted him. The name of 
Abbas Pasha was hateful to all, except a portion of the military 
men, whose favor he had bought by unworthy means." 

This story came from most credible authority and is cor- 
roborated by other authorities equally worthy of belief; yet 
it is almost impossible in an Oriental country to get at the 
truth of any event that passes in the seclusion of the harem. 
There were five different versions of the manner of Abbas 
Pasha's death current in Cairo. 
I. That he died of apoplexy. 
II. That he was suffocated with a wet cloth. 

D 



34 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

III. That he was strangled with a palm tree cord. 

IV. That he was stabbed in the heart. 

V. That he was stifled under the cushions of his divan. 
But Diamant Bey, a French physician who examined the 
body immediately after death, positively affirmed that he 
died of apoplexy. 



CHAPTER II. 

ARABI PASHA. 

SAID PASHA, a younger son of Mehemet Ali, — the son 
of his old age, — succeeded his nephew Abbas Pasha, 
who had been a few months older than himself, and he 
has been well described by M. de Leon, who resided many 
years in Egypt as consular agent of the United States. 
The political position of Egypt during this century has 
been so undefined, that consular agents perform for their 
respective nations the duties of ambassadors at Cairo and 
Alexandria : — 

" He was a bold, frank, fearless man ; loving good society and 
good living. He had also a strong sense of humor, spoke French 
like a Frenchman, and had a ready wit in repartee. He had 
been carefully educated by an accomplished French tutor, who 
had looked after his morals as well as his mind and manners. 
His policy was opposite to that of Abbas, being a 'policy of 
expansion.' He encouraged and invited immigration, and sur- 
rounded himself with European employes, a policy which twenty- 
eight years later helped to bring on the troubles of 1882. In 
person he was very like the pictures and descriptions of Henry 
VIII. in his youth, being of fair complexion, with brown beard 
and light hair. Like Henry, before his death he became un- 
wieldy and corpulent. He gave beautiful entertainments, but 
only to men ; and his private dinners were exquisite, his French 
cook (an Arab) being a perfect chef; while his table service was 
of solid gold." 

He had but one acknowledged wife, a Princess of his 
own house, and he was devotedly fond of his home and 
family, though of course his ideas and manners in domes- 
tic life were those of a Mohammedan. 

35 



36 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

"In 1854 he mounted the throne of Egypt, a gay, hope- 
ful, ardent man, with vigorous health, boundless power, 
and almost inexhaustible wealth. He left it, nine years 
later, for a premature grave, his strength wasted by disease 
to childish weakness; hope, fortune, friends, all lost; and, 
with a soul as sick as his body, he welcomed death as a 
relief from suffering. He was buried, not among others 
of his line who have stately mausoleums near Cairo, but in 
the burying ground of a small mosque in the centre of Alex- 
andria, where his Georgian mother lies buried. As he was 
human he had sinned and suffered, both as a public and 
a private man. His ways were not as our ways; his civili- 
zation was blended with barbarism; but he was a brave, 
true-hearted man, a staunch friend, a forgiving enemy, a 
just, humane, and judicious ruler over the country which 
Providence had confided to his care." 

Said was fortunate in his great minister Nubar Pasha, 
who for twenty years held high office in Egypt under three 
viceroys. He was an Armenian Christian, like Loris 
Melikoff, the great reforming minister of Alexander II., 
but his immediate family had settled in Egypt, where his 
uncle, Boghos Bey, had been one of the ablest councillors 
of Mehemet Ali. Nubar was educated by this uncle for 
a career of diplomacy. He could speak and write almost 
all the languages of Europe; and foreign courts and foreign 
conferences acknowledged him as a man of great weight 
and authority. He was an Armenian both in appearance 
and character. He adhered strictly to his Christian 
creed and its observances, and no man was ever less of 
an Oriental courtier. 

Said Pasha, in 1854, the year of his accession, author- 
ized the commencement of the Suez Canal, which was 
opened in 1869 under the reign of his successor, when the 
Empress Eugenie was the Cleopatra of the occasion ; the 
festivities over which she presided being the last gleam of 
brightness in her life, — poor lady! 

M. Ferdinand de Lesseps had been well known in Egypt 



ARAB I PASHA, 37 

before he undertook the gigantic enterprise of the Suez 
Canal. His father was French consul-general in Egypt 
under Mehemet Ali, and, indeed, before he rose to power. 
M. de Lesseps was assisted by two French engineers, Linant 
and Mougil, who planned and perfected the canal. Its 
cost, from first to last, is said to have been about nineteen 
millions of pounds sterling, or ninety-five millions of 
dollars — far less than has been already wasted on the 
Canal of Panama. The enterprise also owed much to the 
temper, tact, and ability of the company's first vice-presi- 
dent, a man whose acquaintance with canals may be said 
to have been national, Mynheer Ruyssennairs, consul- 
general of Holland. 

It is needless to speak of the marvellous growth of Port 
Said, with the effect of its dazzling white buildings against 
the evening sky, as described with enthusiasm by all East- 
ern-bound travellers; or of Ismailia, where many passengers 
join P. and O. steamers on the Suez Canal, as they pass 
to and from India; or of Suez, now "a beautiful little 
town charmingly situated," which before the days of the 
canal was scarcely more than a collection of Arab hovels, 
whose inhabitants were supplied with drinking water 
brought on the backs of camels from the Sweet Waters 
Canal. 

By a document dated in January, 1856, which regulated 
the relations of the Canal Company with Egypt and Turkey, 
it is solemnly declared, in the fourteenth article, that 
the canal " is to be forever open as a neutral way to every 
commercial vessel proceeding from one sea to the other, 
without distinction, preference, or exclusion, either of per- 
sons or nationalities; subject only to the payment of dues." 
But this privilege covers only vessels of commerce, and in 
times of war the Porte and the Khedive may exclude war 
vessels, as in the case of the Russian War of 1877 was done. 

Said spent immense sums in what we may call " modern 
improvements," many of which, like those introduced 
into our kitchens, proved for a long time far in advance 



38 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

of the intelligence required to make them serviceable. 
He introduced steam-pumps, and steam machinery of all 
kinds for agricultural purposes, "and," as M. de Leon puts 
it, "kept Father Nile within his bed, out of which he 
annually, at a given time, aroused him to take a run over 
the country, instead of allowing him to tumble out himself 
in primitive fashion." Under his judicious management, 
and that of his ministers, the revenues of Egypt steadily 
increased. But in his last illness he is said to have re- 
gretted that he left his country saddled with a debt of 
twenty-five million dollars. He felt and expressed much 
interest in the working population, the fellaheen, that race 
of hereditary drudges whom all men compassionate, yet 
whose case seems beyond the reach of amelioration, com- 
plicated as it is by the terrible vis inerticR of Oriental apathy 
and fatalism, — that dumb stupidity, against which, Schil- 
ler tells us, "even the gods are powerless," — as well as by 
the corruption and cruelty of subordinate oppressors. 

Believing that better lodging might ameliorate the con- 
dition of the laborers upon his own estates. Said Pasha 
caused the fellah mud huts to be pulled down, and trans- 
planted his fellah families to convenient buildings in a 
model village. Eighteen months later, being asked how 
his model village was getting on, he merely replied: "You 
will oblige me, the next time you pass on your way to 
Cairo, to stop and see ! " The interlocutor did so, and 
lound the model houses deserted and rapidly falling into 
ruins, while outside the village limits were again grouped 
the old mud huts in all their primitive discomfort and dirt. 
The experiment had wholly failed. 

In 1862, at the height of our Civil War, Said Pasha 
made a journey to Paris to consult a French surgeon. 
His disease was, however, incurable, and he died in 1863, 
not long after his return home. 

The next heir to the viceroyalty, according to Moham- 
medan law, was Ismail Pasha. He was the second son of 
the great Ibrahim Pasha; his brother, Prince Achmet, had 



ARABI PASHA, 



39 



been a little older than himself. But early in the year 
1858 Said Pasha gave a great fete at Alexandria, to which 
he invited all the princes of his family. Ismail, under the 
protection of his lucky star, did not go to this fete, which 
ended in a tragedy. The special train carrying back to 
Cairo the princes and their suites fell through an open draw- 
bridge when passing over the Nile. Prince Halim, younger 
brother of Said Pasha, was a man of great strength and 
energy; he saved himself by swimming, but Prince Achmet, 
a heavy and inert man, was drowned with nearly all his 
companions, leaving his brother Ismail heir to the vice- 
regal throne. Ismail the Lucky some named the new 
sovereign, and he seemed to be fortunate during the first 
years of his reign, but he might have been rather styled 
Ismail the Extravagant. He was the first Khedive, a title 
equivalent to king, or rather lesser king, much like that of 
rex bestowed by Rome on the sovereigns of provinces sub- 
ject to her sway; on Herod, for instance, who was King of 
the Jews. Sometimes, during the days of the early Roman 
emperors, a number of these personages would be in Rome 
at once, on which occasion they laid aside their regal privi- 
leges, and were heartily despised by the Roman people. 

The life-long ambition of the Sultan of Turkey, Abdul 
Aziz, who reigned from 1861 to 1876, was to change the 
old Mohammedan law of succession, and leave his throne 
to Prince Izzedin, his son. Russia supported him, but 
the other Great Powers and the chief Mohammedan author- 
ity, the Shei^kh ul Islam, upheld the rights of his nephew 
Murad, son of Abdul Medjid, his predecessor. 

Abdul Aziz hoped, by making a change in the line of 
Egyptian succession, and issuing a firman authorizing the 
new Khedive to leave his throne to his own son, instead 
of the heir by Mohammedan law, to pave the way for a 
change in the law of succession at Constantinople. There 
was this difference, however, between the Ottoman and the 
Egyptian succession. The Sultan is also Caliph, head of 
the Mohammedan religion; to meddle with the legitimate 



40 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

succession to the Caliphate would be sacrilege and im- 
piety. 

The opening of the Suez Canal was a time of great glory 
to Ismail, whose money flowed like water. He built an 
Aladdin's palace at Ismailia to receive the French Empress, 
and gave a ball in it to seven thousand persons. 

But, alas! the revenues of Egypt, though the fellaheen 
were taxed to the utmost, would not support the drain of 
the Khedive's extravagance. Like his suzerain Abdul 
Aziz, he discovered the facility with which he could raise 
foreign loans. Amongst other things, the favor of the Sul- 
tan at Constantinople cost him untold sums of money. 
Whenever Abdul Aziz was "hard up," he ordered the ruler 
of Egypt to visit him at Constantinople. Ismail could not 
appear without magnificent presents to the Sultan, the 
grand vizier, and the chief persons about the seraglio. 
To Abdul Aziz he once presented a beautiful ironclad war 
steamer. By 1875 the public debt of Egypt, which had 
been twenty-five million dollars twelve years before, when 
Said died, had risen to four hundred and fifty million 
dollars, and Ismail grew so embarrassed that he was thankful 
to sell his shares in the Suez Canal to the English Govern- 
ment for four million pounds sterling (twenty million 
dollars). 

The English were glad to purchase them, for, although 
at first they had believed with Lord Palmerston that the 
enterprise of the Canal was a fraud and a delusion, by 1875 
they looked upon it as the high road from England to India, 
and were glad to embrace the prospect of acquiring a con- 
trolling interest in its affairs. 

But the four millions of pounds paid for these shares 
were but a drop in the bucket to the deficit in the Egyp- 
tian exchequer. England had guaranteed to foreign bond- 
holders the payment of the coupons of Egyptian bonds, 
and investors had been induced to purchase them on this 
guarantee. It was, therefore, her duty to see that the 
yearly interest was not withheld. To raise that interest 



ARABI PASHA, 4I 

the fellaheen, who alone paid taxes, and who, roughly 
speaking, were five and a half millions of the population, 
had to pay, in direct and indirect taxes, seven million 
pounds sterling (thirty-five million dollars), besides other 
taxes amounting to two and a half million pounds (twelve 
million dollars) more. 

It would not be of much interest to non-investors to fol- 
low the ups and downs of the bankrupt Khedive's affairs. 
An English and a French controller of his finances were 
appointed, who proceeded to bring order out of chaos; 
amongst other things they insisted on his giving up vast 
estates that he held in the Delta or Lower Egypt, to be 
managed by English overseers for the good of the state 
and the creditors. Ismail naturally disliked the inter- 
ference of these comptrollers in his affairs, and he got rid 
of them by what we might call "a clever dodge:" he 
turned out his Ministry, and put in a new one, composed 
almost entirely of Englishmen and Frenchmen. No one 
could challenge the Khedive's right to dismiss or select 
his own ministers; and, as foreigners of high character 
were in office, the English and French governments con- 
sented to suspend the functions of the comptrollers. 

To understand what next took place we must know some- 
thing about the Egyptian army. It much resembled the 
army of France under the Old Regime, when officiers bleus 
(that is, officers who were not up to the highest standard of 
noble birth) were flouted and overslaughed by any officer 
who had the prescribed number of quarterings. The rank 
and file of the Egyptian army was composed of the lowest 
and the poorest. Every man who could do so bought 
himself off from conscription, for the Egyptian fellah is 
an agricultural animal, is timid, industrious, and densely 
ignorant; simply desiring not to be overtaxed; yielding 
passively to tyranny; anxious only to be let alone. The 
officers were nearly all foreigners, or of Circassian descent, 
the foreigners were of all nationalities; many were ex- 
Federal or ex-Confederate Americans, who, having once 



42 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

taken up the profession of arms, were reluctant to lay down 
the sword. Occasionally (but very rarely) a fellah by 
birth rose to the rank of officer, but he was then treated 
by the Circassians much as the old noblesse treated the 
officier bleu. One of these officers of fellah birth was 
Ahmed Arabi, a tall, burly fellow, about thirty-six years 
old when he came into prominence. His father had been 
a fellah who cultivated a few acres of land, and Arabs 
worked under him, until, being conscripted and unable to 
pay for his release, he went into the army, and by some 
unwonted chance rose to be an officer. At Said Pasha's 
death he was a captain, and one of the officers on guard 
at the palace at Cairo. One night he made too much 
noise, and disturbed the rest of Ismail, the new Viceroy, 
who exclaimed that he was "as noisy as the big drum, and 
not so useful." He was thereupon punished ignominiously, 
and ever after cherished revenge. 

He joined a secret society of native officers whose ob- 
ject was to oppose the favoritism showed to Circassians and 
Europeans. At one time he was expelled from the army 
on a charge (possibly false) of peculation. He was rein- 
stated, however, by Ismail, who was bent on increasing 
his army, and he then became the leader of the discon- 
tented faction of native officers. The Khedive, finding 
the society formed by these men too formidable to be sup- 
pressed, made friends with its chiefs, and Arabi received 
promotion, and the high honor of a wife out of the Khe- 
dive's harem. He was not a man of striking abilities, but 
he had a reputation for eloquence, and his known hatred 
to Europeans made him popular with the Egyptian natives, 
who looked on Europeans, and not on the Khedive, as the 
cause of their heavy taxation. In one of his speeches on 
behalf of the establishment of free schools in Egypt, he 
said: "Before the native was brought in contact with 
Europe, he was content to ride a donkey, to wear a blue 
gown, and to drink water, now he must drive in a carriage, 
wear a coat made in Constantinople, and drink champagne. 



ARABI PASHA. 43 

. . . Europeans," he added, "are ahead of us, — but why? 
It is only because they are better taught. Let us then be 
educated, and the boasted supremacy of the Franks will 
disappear." 

Such is the popular idea among the semi-educated and 
semi-civilized in many countries; no allowance being 
made for the backing given to mere instruction by civili- 
zation, morality, religion, and heredity. 

Ismail's new ministry of Europeans by no means worked 
to his satisfaction, or to that of his people. A mob of 
officers, probably instigated by himself, assailed the minis- 
ters, and they were forced to resign. 

The next ministry refused to pay the interest that Eng- 
land had guaranteed to bondholders, whereupon England 
and France appealed to the Sultan, who, delighted to exer- 
cise his suzerainty, deposed Ismail Pasha in June, 1879, 
and put his son Tewfik in his place. 

Ismail received the announcement of his fall (which he 
did not expect) with great dignity. He sent for his son 
Tewfik. The young prince entered his presence trembling. 
His father received him standing, and invited him to sit 
beside him, saying : " By the will of our master, the Sultan, 
you are the new Khedive of Egypt, and I am going. 
Listen; you are young, but you have a firm disposition. 
Hearken to your counsellors, and be happier than your 
father." Tewfik and the bystanders were moved to tears. 
Ismail quitted Cairo the next morning, and went to Naples, 
accompanied, it is said, by seventy ladies of his harem. 

At the time of his abdication he was forty-six years old. 
He was short and very corpulent, with a reddish-brown 
beard, and one startlingly bright eye; the other he usually 
kept half-closed. He spoke French well, and his manners 
were charming. He was an excellent man of business, 
that is, in all its details, in spite of his extravagance and 
bankruptcy. He had a mania for doing everything him- 
self, and with the usual results. 

LTntil the time when Ismail obtained favor from Abdul 



44 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

Aziz, Egyptian rulers had not been allowed to contract 
foreign loans without the permission of the Sultan. After 
that Ismail, as I said, raised the public debt to four hun- 
dred and fifty millions of dollars. The greater part of this 
money, he claimed, had been spent in making railroads, 
establishing lines of telegraph, and beautifying Cairo, 
which he tried to convert into a paradise; but he only 
succeeded in deorientalizing its principal streets, and con- 
verting them into inferior duplicates of the Rue de Rivoli. 
The Commission of Inquiry, however, made out that by 
far the larger portion of his funds had been expended in 
the acquisition of landed property for himself or for his 
family. Indeed, he seemed desirous of imitating the land 
policy of Joseph, and becoming, like the Pharaoh of old, 
owner over all the land of Egypt. At the time when this 
ambition was checked he had actually appropriated, by 
purchase or by violence, over a million acres; in other 
words, one-fifth of the land under cultivation in his domin- 
ions; and his estates paid no taxes. 

One feels sorry for poor Ismail, remembering how all- 
glorious he was before his fall, receiving crowned heads 
and entertaining the fascinating Empress with lavish hos- 
pitality. The festivities attendant on the opening of the 
Suez Canal cost him an immense deal of money. 

By the end of his reign there were more than thirteen 
hundred miles of railroad in Egypt, opening up the coun- 
try; the Suez Canal was completed, and it cost the Khe- 
dive (although it was owned by a joint-stock company) 
an enormous sum, for he had to buy back lands impru- 
dently awarded to the company by his predecessor. Gas 
was introduced into the principal cities, and a good supply 
of water. His telegraph lines reached to the very verge 
of the Soudan. The harbor improvements at Alexandria 
and Port Said cost enormously. He made irrigating canals 
and dug trenches, erected lighthouses, paved and beauti- 
fied Alexandria as well as Cairo, set on foot a line of 
steamers to Greece and Turkey, besides having the cost of 



ARABI PASHA, 45 

two Abyssinian wars, and chronic war in his Soudan prov- 
inces. In addition to this, the Turkish tribute cost Egypt 
three million dollars annually, and, as I have said, presents 
to the Sultan and his court absorbed immense sums. 

Tewfik was twenty-seven years old when, in this startling 
and unexpected manner, he became Effendina, — lord and 
master of Egypt. He had not been born to that dignity, 
for, although he was the eldest son of Ismail Pasha, the 
old Mussulman law of inheritance would have placed his 
uncle Halim, one of the youngest sons of Mehemet Ali, 
on the viceregal throne. But his father Ismail had spent 
vast sums to secure the title of Khedive, and, together 
with other privileges, he obtained his suzerain's sanction 
to adopt the European rule of primogeniture, which made 
his eldest son succeed him on his throne. 

It puzzled the contemporaries of Ismail to understand 
why he should have labored with such pains, and at such 
expense, to obtain this honor for a son who was apparently 
less dear to him than his other children, one on whom he 
had not bestowed the advantages of education which he had 
given to the rest, and whom he had systematically kept in 
the background. The explanation is probably this — that 
Ismail was little zealous about the line of succession, but 
that this point was most important to Abdul Aziz. The 
concession was, therefore, made less to gratify Ismail than 
to suit the views of the Sultan. 

Tewfik' s mother, unlike all the rest of Ismail's wives, 
was a native Egyptian woman, and what the Saxon was to 
the Norman noble, so is the native race of Egypt to the 
Turk. Tewfik, however, was far more a Turk and a Mus- 
sulman than his father. The seclusion in which he had 
been kept had prevented his adopting or approving 
modern innovations on the old time customs of the Ori- 
entals, and he had acquired a certain nervousness and 
timidity very embarrassing to himself and to his visitors. 
He spoke French well, and acquired, after a time, a small 
stock of English. One who knew him well has said : " It 



46 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY 

was curious to note how, surrounded though he was with 
difficulties, and exposed, on coming to the throne, to every 
kind of sinister influence, Tewfik gradually qualified himself 
for the position he had been called upon to occupy. . . . 
And of all the dynasty of Mehemet Ali there was not one 
who, after his own fashion, had the welfare of his people so 
much at heart." 

One of Tewfik's first acts on coming to the throne was to 
conciliate Arabi, whom he made a colonel. Arabi, as I have 
said, was the leading man among the discontented spirits 
of the Egyptian army. The leaders were popularly called 
" the colonels." There were four of these leaders. Two 
besides Arabi were colonels, while one was a cunning poli- 
tician, called Mohammed Sami. This man advised his com- 
panions to give the discontent of the army a national turn, 
and to call themselves the " National " party. 

Tewfik's brothers had been educated in Europe, but he 
had never been suffered to leave Egypt until 1870, when the 
outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War caused his father, in 
a few weeks, to recall him from Vienna. He was a strict 
Mohammedan, but he had only one wife, a princess of his 
own family. Report said that to her he was not only an 
affectionate but a faithful husband. He led an entirely 
domestic life before his elevation, looking after his property 
as a large land owner. It was also reported to his credit 
that he showed an unusual interest in the condition of 
the fellaheen who labored on his lands. He displayed at 
no time in his life any disposition for ostentation or ex- 
travagance, but was courteous, hospitable, and dignified. 
Though not a man of marked ability, or restless courage, 
he fully deserved what has been said of him : " His loy- 
alty, his patience, his scrupulous honesty, his kindly and 
amicable disposition, and his shrewd common sense, have 
undoubtedly stood Egypt, as well as England, in goodly 
stead." 

His situation, however, during the first two years of his 
sovereignty, must have been difficult in the extreme. He 



ARABI PASHA. 47 

had to please the Sultan; to satisfy the demands made on 
him by the French and English; to propitiate Arabi and the 
so-called National party; and to endeavor, with imperfect 
instruments, to carry on a new experiment in constitutional 
government. Sometimes Arabi and Mohammed Sami had 
the upper hand; sometimes the French and English, who 
held threats of the Sultan's interference over the Khedive's 
head — threats which, at the same time, they would hardly 
have wished the Sultan to put in execution. 

Things went on with this kind of see-saw until February, 
1 88 1. Then a sort of parliament, called the Chamber of 
Notables, was set up by the " National " party. The French 
and English refused to allow this Chamber to interfere with 
their management of the finances of Egypt, believing that 
its first step would be to repudiate payment of the interest 
guaranteed to bondholders by the Enghsh government. 

It seems at first sight hard that Egyptians should have 
been deprived of the power claimed by all representatives 
of the people to manage their own financial affairs ; but 
M. Gambetta, the leading advocate of the rights of men, 
was French minister for foreign affairs at this period, and 
he fully concurred with England in the necessity for deny- 
ing this power to the Egyptians. 

Things went on thus, becoming more and more entangled 
and confused, till Sunday, June 11, 1882, when a massacre 
of Europeans was planned by officers of the army, who were 
by this time almost all of fellah origin, and there were not 
wanting persons who, in the terror and excitement of the 
moment, suspected that it had been connived at by the 
Khedive. Some Europeans had received warnings, and 
the foreign population of Alexandria was on the alert. 

The Sunday morning passed quietly. The English resi- 
dents in Alexandria went to church as usual, but about 2 p.m. 
a riot began in one of the principal streets, commencing 
with a quarrel between some Maltese and a party of Egyptian 
soldiers. Two thousand Arabs rushed to the assistance of 
the latter. All were armed with clubs studded with nails, 



48 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

called nabouts. Europeans in the streets fled to their con- 
sulates or to the police stations, and in the latter some were 
slaughtered, the soldiers present not being willing to raise 
a hand for their protection. The shops and dwellings of 
Europeans were broken open, and for four hours and a 
half Alexandria was like a sacked city. 

The English consul, Mr. Cookson, when about ninety 
yards from the chief police station, was assaulted with 
stones, and then attacked from behind. He was unarmed, 
but he stood up in his carriage, and faced his assailants as 
he would have done wild beasts. This stayed the crowd 
for a moment, but a gigantic Arab cHmbed up behind the 
carriage, and knocked him senseless with a club. When he 
recovered consciousness he was lying in the street with an 
Arab officer trying to protect him from the mob, which was 
still striking at him with clubs. ' He managed to stagger, 
assisted by the officer, to the police station ; the soldiers 
and the police looking quietly on. They said that they had 
been ordered not to interfere, whatever happened. 

All the Consulates in Alexandria were attacked, and some 
of the consuls were severely beaten. The mob, the soldiers, 
and the police paid no attention whatever to a few feeble 
eflbrts to protect Europeans, made for form's sake by the 
civil authorities. 

The crowd hunted down every Christian they saw. The 
accounts of men beaten to death, stabbed by the soldiers 
with sword bayonets, or shot down by Bedouins, are sicken- 
ing. Robbery went hand in hand with murder, and Arabs 
possessed themselves of the watches and purses of any 
whom they spared. 

The rioters were not more particular as to the nature of 
their plunder than Nym and Bardolph in their French 
campaign. One soldier was seen carrying aloft a glass 
chandelier, another bestriding gallantly a child's toy horse. 

A missionary and his daughter had that morning landed. 
The missionary and a gentleman who was with him were 
killed ; the daughter was beaten about the head and 



ARABI PASHA. 49 

shoulders ; then an Arab soldier flung her over his back, 
and carried her to the Arab quarter, where she was rescued 
from further violence. Some officers and men of Her 
Majesty's ship Sicperb (then lying in the harbor of Alex- 
andria) attempted to cross the city to rejoin their vessel. 
The proceeding was foolhardy. All of them were beaten,' 
and one officer was killed, as well as two seamen. The very 
children and bootblacks took their part in the fray, killing 
and stabbing wounded Europeans. 

Whilst all this was going on, seven thousand soldiers re- 
mained inactive in their barracks. They said that they 
must have written orders from Cairo before doing anything 
to quell the disorders. There was a Turkish commissioner 
at Cairo, who, the day before, had turned his back on xArabi 
Pasha ; now he was glad almost to implore him to interpose 
his authority to stay the riot at Alexandria. To this Arabi, 
after some curt insolence, agreed, delighted to show the 
Sultan's delegate that in troubled Egypt he at least could 
rule as one all-powerful. At 6 p.m. a telegram arrived from 
him in Alexandria, ordering the troops to act, and the 
moment they appeared upon the scene the rioters shrank 
up the side streets, and all was over. 

There is no way of knowing how many persons perished. 
It is estimated, however, that there may have been one hun- 
dred and fifty Europeans, besides native Christians. Many 
corpses were stripped and thrown into the sea ; all night 
prayers were offered at the shrines of Mohammedan saints, 
and curses were invoked upon unbelievers. The governor 
arrested, after all was over, between two and three hundred 
of the rioters. 

Thousands of Europeans flocked from all parts of Egypt 
to embark at the piers of Alexandria. During the whole of 
the day after the massacre the streets were blocked by these 
fugitives. At first they were cursed and spat upon, but at 
last were suffered to pass unmolested. By the thir- 
teenth of June the various consuls affirmed that tranquil- 
lity in the city was restored. 

E 



50 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

But English people, great as their courage is, are rarely 
panic-proof. There was a general stampede throughout 
Egypt. The ironclads in the harbor, all government steam- 
ers^ and merchantmen, were crowded with men, women, 
and children, seeking protection ; and numbers hastened 
away to Malta, Cyprus, and Constantinople. 

Arabi, as minister of war, — a post to which he was 
appointed shortly after the massacre, — was the ruler of 
Egypt de facto, and he appeared to be high in favor both 
with the Khedive and the Sultan. This favor was by no 
means reassuring to Europeans, and their exodus, as well as 
that of Jews and Turks, continued to go on. 

Great was public indignation in England when news of 
the massacre was received in London. Especially abhor- 
rent was the thought that Englishmen should have been 
butchered under the very guns of English war-vessels, and 
a large English fleet was at once despatched to Malta, with 
orders to postpone vengeance upon Alexandria only until 
all Europeans who desired it should be out of the country. 

What followed has not been considered creditable to the 
wisdom and discretion of Admiral Seymour, who, as com- 
mander of the fleet, represented the English government. 
It resulted in more massacre, more pillage, and the indis- 
criminate chastisement of friend and foe. 

By July 3 the fleet was off Alexandria, and Admiral Sey- 
mour made it a casus belli that earthworks had been thrown 
up opposite the station of his flag-ship, the Invincible, and 
that on these earthworks the Egyptians had mounted guns. 

The Egyptian authorities promised to mount no more guns, 
but they refused to dismount at foreign dictation those 
already in position. 

On July 12, 1882, after some parley about these guns, the 
bombardment of Alexandria by the English fleet was begun. 

The French war steamers, with every ship that was not 
English, sailed or steamed out of the harbor. The bombard- 
ment continued all day. The damage done was enough in 
all conscience, but it would have been more had not the 



ARABI PASHA. 5 I 

English shells been so indifferent that the greater part of 
them failed to explode. 

Of course the English showed bravery and seamanship, 
and of course they were successful, and silenced all the forts 
along the water's edge. 

On the day of the bombardment the weather was beauti- 
ful, and life seemed likely to go on as usual among the 
inhabitants of Alexandria, who were quite unaware that notice 
of a bombardment had been sent to the authorities. There 
were still about eighteen hundred Europeans in the city. 
Suddenly the first gun, fired about seven in the morning, 
startled the inhabitants, and the bombardment with all its 
horrors began. 

The Khedive had retired to the Palace of Ramleh, beyond 
the city. Arabi was in command of the defenses. The 
English ships in the harbor vomited forth fire and smoke, 
while the forts of the Egyptians thundered back an answer. 
"The scene during the bombardment," says an eye- 
witness, "was of the grandest description. The immense 
ships of war seemed to cover the sea around Alexandria, 
and the shrieks of the projectiles as they flew over were 
mingled with the boom of the cannon which echoed and 
re-echoed on all sides. The reports from the large eighty- 
ton guns of the Inflexible were easily distinguished above 
the general roar. " 

By the middle of the day a report gained ground among 
the Arabs that the English were worsted. There was great 
rejoicing, and about a dozen Europeans were dragged into 
the streets and cut down. They however were then rescued, 
thanks to the exertions of a small foreign brigade connected 
with the Egyptian police. 

The firing ceased at 5 p.m. At once all the inhabitants 
of Alexandria seemed animated by one common desire to 
escape if possible from the town. The night was calm, the 
streets in utter darkness. No gas was lighted; the only 
sounds, from time to time, were the plaintive howlings of 
some forsaken dog. 



52 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

When morning came, bands of armed Arabs roamed 
through the streets searchmg for Europeans. Then, about 
noon, the garrison began to evacuate the city. 

The moment it was known that the troops were leav- 
ing, the plunder of all shops and dwellings, European or 
Egyptian, began. The mob was let loose. Soldiers and 
civilians alike staggered through the streets laden with 
plunder. 

The wildest disorder prevailed. Among the fugitives 
were Turkish ladies and children, from the harems of rich 
men. At the gates they were attacked by the mob, and 
treated brutally. Outside the gates were armed men wait- 
ing to rob the plunderers of their plunder. One bandanna 
handkerchief was seen to change hands three times. Not 
only mirrors, furniture, and such things were carried off, 
but horses and carriages. 

Soldiers in the streets undressed themselves, and wrapped 
yards and yards of beautiful stuffs around their persons. 
Some brought gilt chairs and sofas to the gates, but, find- 
ing them too cumbersome, broke them up and tore off 
the covering. 

The day had been gloomy, and, seen from the English 
ships, a dark haze hung over the city. By evening the 
town was observed to be on fire in several places, and after 
some delay Admiral Seymour sent on shore a party of 
marines to protect fugitives escaping to the shipping. 

The Arab soldiers before departing had fired the city. 
The flames broke out first near the British consulate. 
As Europeans who had been in hiding, terrified at the 
thought of being burned alive, rushed into the streets, they 
were set upon by rioters. One of the bravest and most 
helpful men in Alexandria on that day was the Danish 
consul. He sheltered one hundred and fifty of these poor 
creatures. 

" During the night nothing was heard but the crackling 
of flames mingled with the cries of incendiaries, and the 
occasional fall of a heavy building. The volume of smoke 



ARABI PASHA. 53 

filled the air with nauseous vapors. The smell of petroleum 
was everywhere. The officers of the Anglo -Egyptian Bank 
had stood by their property. The pillagers and murderers 
had disappeared, but the atmosphere had become unbeara- 
ble. The men in the bank made a sortie, with their women 
and children in their midst, and reached the water's edge 
in safety." So also did the party from the Danish Consulate. 
At the waterside they were under the protection of Admiral 
Seymour's marines. During the bombardment the Khedive 
in his palace at Ramleh was deserted by his native officers, 
but his Europeans remained faithful to him. Among these 
was Stone Pasha, a United States general who during our 
Civil War had fallen into disrepute for alleged inefficiency. 

The Khedive sent for Arabi when the bombardment 
ceased and demanded an account of the affair. This 
Arabi said he could not give ; he only knew the result, 
which was that terms must be made with the English 
admiral. 

The next day, while negotiations to this effect were 
going on, the Khedive nearly fell a victim to a plot for his 
assassination. It was a plan formed openly in a council 
of officers, led by Mohammed Sami. Tewfik's guard, ac- 
cording to the programme of this plot, set off suddenly 
to join Arabi ; but one company remained, " faithful found 
among the faithless." This company, under its captain 
Munib Effendi, escorted the Khedive to his seaside palace 
of Ras el Tin, passing on their way through the still- 
burning streets of Alexandria. At Ras el Tin the Khedive 
was met by Admiral Seymour. 

A day later an English force under Sir Garnet Wolseley 
reached Alexandria, and took charge of the ruined and de- 
serted city, putting out fires, cleansing the streets^, burying 
the dead, and executing incendiaries. 

All over Egypt massacres of Europeans occurred. At 
one place a whole family was taken from a train and 
crushed under the wheels of an engine. 

The Khedive's ministers were imprisoned in Cairo, and 



54 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

any orders he or they might issue were pronounced null and 
void. The Khedive in his turn dismissed Arabi from his 
position as war minister and commander of the defences of 
Alexandria. For this Arabi cared httle, but proceeded to call 
around him reinforcements, — old soldiers and conscripts, — 
and to entrench himself at a place called Kafr Dowar. 

Alexandria soon began to suffer for want of water. The 
English engineer of the water-works had stood at his post 
through the bombardment, but now Arabi let salt water into 
the chief reservoir, and the old Roman tanks had to be 
cleaned out by the English, and again brought into use. 

Sir Archibald Alison, son of the historian, was in com- 
mand at Alexandria. It was not long before it became evi- 
dent that Arabi was preparing to get possession of the Suez 
Canal, and England and France pressed on the Sultan the 
necessity of sending a Turkish force to protect it against 
Egyptian mutineers, and to put down the rebellion. But 
the Sultan could not be persuaded to call Arabi a traitor, 
until the English and the French were making preparations 
for a joint expedition to Suez. 

At this time, however, M. Gambetta was displaced in the 
French ministry, and his successor declined to co-operate 
in the expedition. Great was the wrath of M. de Lesseps 
when the English, having ascertained that Arabi was going 
to use the canal for war purposes, took possession of Port 
Said, and of Ismailia, while at Suez they were already land- 
ing troops from India to co-operate with Sir Garnet Wolseley. 

The English soldiers suffered terribly from sunstroke, and 
a good deal from want of provisions. Arabi had put a dam 
across the canal of Sweet Waters, which carries the water 
of the Nile across the desert, and a slight engagement was 
fought to get possession of this water-supply. The dam had 
been very ingeniously made of bundles of rushes tied to- 
gether with telegraph wires. Nothing would explode them, 
and it was several days before English soldiers, bit by bit, 
succeeded in destroying the dam. 

Arabi's telegrams to Cairo appropriating to himself the 




GENERAL SIR GARNET WOLSELEY. 



ARABI PASHA. 55 

victory every time he engaged the EngHsh, do not differ 
much from the telegrams of many other generals, except 
that their Mohammedan piety sounds strangely to us who 
rarely send the name of God along a telegraph wire. Thus 
he telegraphs to the rebel ministry at Cairo, August 28, 1882 : 
" When the horses have been watered, there will be a 
charge, please God. Give us the aid of your pure prayers 
asking for succor from the Lord Almighty." 

And later : " I pray God for help against all His enemies. 
Pray God to help all true believers ! " 

What was the situation of the Suez Canal at the time of 
the English occupation ? Arabi Pasha as the de facto ruler 
of the country was practically carrying on war with the 
British nation, and his forces were occupying places in the 
neighborhood of the canal, and even on the canal itself. 
Theoretically it was competent for the Sultan, as the suzerain 
of Egypt to put an end both to Arabi and his revolt. That, 
however, he would not do. The result was that England 
furnished her troops in Egypt with authority from the 
Khedive to crush his enemies, and engaged as a belligerent, 
ostensibly on the Khedive's behalf, against Arabi, the rebel 
leader. This state of things conferred on England rights as 
a belligerent, which authorized her to occupy, if necessary 
for war purposes, any Egyptian territory. 

It seems as if the English man-of-war, the Superb, lying in 
the harbor of Alexandria during the massacre of Sunday, the 
nth of June, should have taken prompt measures to punish 
the mob that was maltreating and murdering Europeans. 
The bombardment of Alexandria a month later seems to 
have been unnecessary severity, falling on the wrong people, 
and profiting only the pillagers who had been a murderous 
mob a month before. 

Having begun by bombarding Alexandria, the English had 
to go on, especially as, having in 1873 guaranteed the pay- 
ment of interest on loans made by the Egyptian government, 
they were forced to see that Egyptian resources were not 
destroyed by revolt or otherwise. 



56 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY, 

The war against Arabi and his army was carried on 
with all possible humanity. Provisions were always paid 
for. But this spirit of humanity was not responded to by 
the enemy. On one occasion an English soldier asked a 
wounded Egyptian if he should give him some water. He 
turned to get it, when the object of his humanity, raising 
himself on his elbow, shot him in the back. 

We now come to the battle of Tel el Kebir, at which Prince 
Arthur, Duke of Connaught, was present. It was fought 
September i, 1882. Arabi had twenty-five thousand men in 
an entrenched camp ; Sir Garnet Wolseley, fifteen thousand. 

Tel el Kebir, besides being an entrenched position, was 
well defended by nature, and still more by art. The battle 
ground was in the desert, which, though deep in the sand, 
was better for an attacking army than the cultivated country, 
which, in Egypt, is cut up by trenches and irrigating canals. 

Sir Garnet determined on a night march right up to the 
enemy's defences, and an attack in the gray of the morn- 
ing. 

"In moving over the desert that night," he said, "there 
were no landmarks to guide our movements. We had, 
consequently, to direct our course by the stars." 

This was so well done that the different attacking parties 
reached their stations within a few minutes of each other. 
The enemy was completely surprised. Prince Arthur re- 
ceived his " baptism of fire," leading very gallantly his 
brigade of the Guards. 

The attack was so completely successful that in a brief 
time the whole Egyptian army seems to have taken flight, 
the soldiers throwing away their arms. It was impossible 
to make them wholesale prisoners, so that they were spared 
pursuit. Besides, the English cavalry was needed to push 
on by a rapid march to Cairo. 

Sir Garnet, in his official despatch, takes occasion to say : 
" I do not believe that at any period in our mihtary history 
has the British infantry distinguished itself more than on 
this occasion. I have heard it said of our present infantry 



ARABI PASHA. 57 

regiments that the men are too young, that their training 
has been for manoeuvring, not for fighting, and that their 
powers of endurance were not sufficient for the requirements 
of modern war. After a trial of an exceptionally severe 
kind, both of movement and attack, I can say emphatically 
that I never wish to have under my orders better infantry 
battalions than those I am proud to have commanded at 
Tel el Kebir." 

Arabi said subsequently that at the time of the attack he 
was in bed ; and that the English had not given him time 
to put on his boots. Nevertheless his troops received the 
English with a tremendous fire, and the rank and file of the 
Egyptians endured the first attack with bravery. 

The trenches, after the battle, were found to be filled with 
dead, mostly bayoneted, and the ground in the rear of the 
entrenchments, as far back as the railroad station, was dotted 
with the bodies of those shot down in their flight. Over 
these in few hours flies collected in such dense swarms, that 
an English officer on horseback, endeavoring to reach the 
camp, found difficulty in getting through them. 

The rout was complete. Most of the wounded were found 
lying on their backs, as if they had tried to have a parting 
shot at their pursuers. The animosity of these Egyptians 
towards the English was very great. One of the English 
surgeons, while dressing an Egyptian's wounds, happening 
to turn aside a moment, was shot at by his patient. This 
ingratitude was too much for the doctor's orderly, who, 
before his officer could prevent him, killed the man. 

The English commanders did all they could for tne 
v/ounded, supplying them with hospital comforts, and send- 
ing them into Cairo under the charge of Egyptian surgeons. 

The Egyptian soldiers had fought well, but they had had 
untrustworthy leaders. Somebody said of these, " Each 
officer knew that he himself would run, but he hoped better 
things of his neighbor." The black regiments from the 
Soudan showed great pluck, and their officers less cowardice 
than the others. 



58 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

The battle of Tel el Kebir made an end of Arabi's army. 
Arabi himself, with a few of his officers, caught a railroad 
train, and got to Cairo, where he next day began prepara- 
tions to destroy the city. But the English cavalry was too 
quick for him ; two days of forced marches over desert 
sands, in which they made sixty-five miles a day, enabled 
the advance of the English army, under Sir Herbert 
Stewart, to reach Cairo. The garrison, about ten thou- 
sand men, on being summoned, laid down their arms, and 
the small body of the English took possession of the city. 
Arabi, seeing that his cause was lost, surrendered himself a 
prisoner. 

" The sun was setting," says an eye-witness, '^ as the cavalry 
drew near Cairo. The men had been in the saddle since 
daybreak, under a blazing sun, and both men and horses 
were thoroughly exhausted, but, suffering as they were from 
hunger, parched with thirst, and covered with dust, they yet 
had strength for the remainder of their task." 

There was no difficulty whatever in accomplishing it. 
The city was quiet. The Egyptian soldiers surrendered in 
the most orderly manner. 

An English civilian who that day entered Cairo with the 
English troops, writes thus of what he saw there : — 

" No one will readily forget the impression produced on him by 
the seething hordes of panic-stricken natives who thronged the 
streets of that astonished city. They it was, be it remembered, 
who until the last moment had believed the boasting vaporing 
reports of triumphs over the English, daily published on coarse 
colored posters, issued in profusion by the rebel commander. 
. . . And now that they found English cavalry in their midst, 
and Indian troops camped beneath their walls, they could but 
pace the streets open-mouthed for days and nights together, gaz- 
ing in amazement at those strange animals, the Highlanders, and 
those even more fearsome objects, the Indian cavalrymen. ^ You 
must be very glad/ I said to a young officer of Highlanders, 'to 
find yourself in Cairo after the discomforts of the desert.' ' My 
experience thus far,' he answered, 'of the blessings of civilization, 
is that I have slept in a gutter with my mosquito curtain hitched 
to a lamp-post.' " 



ARABI PASHA. 59 

In the dungeons of the citadel many prisoners were 
found, some convicts, some British subjects, one a captured 
midshipman, who had wandered into the Unes at Kafr Dowar. 
All had been frightened out of their wits, and complained 
loudly of the cruelties of the commandant of the citadel, 
who was afterwards tried and sentenced to hard labor. 

Sir Garnet Wolseley had predicted beforehand that his 
army would enter Cairo on September t6. Events were 
a little in advance of his prediction, for his troops were 
unopposed, and entered the city on the 15 th. 

Arabi Pasha, writing a few months afterwards, said : 
*' We were requested to wait on General Lowe. He asked 
us whether we were willing to give ourselves up as prisoners 
to the English governm.ent? We thereupon took off our 
swords and delivered them to General Lowe, telling him at 
the same time that we only gave ourselves uptto the Enghsh 
government because we were confident England would deal 
with us justly, it being the prayer of humanity, and that 
of our children, that England would see us restored to our 
rights and privileges, and we appealed to him as the repre- 
sentative of the English government and of all EngUshmen. 

"The General agreed with this statement, and we remained 
with him three days. We then went to Abdin, where we 
remained till October 4 under Colonel Thynne, who treated 
us well and kindly." 

Great was the delight, real or pretended, at Alexandria, 
when news came of the victory at Tel el Kebir. The Arab 
mob rushed to embrace the English sentinels. The bands 
played God save the Queen, and the Khedive's Hymn alter- 
nately. The Queen telegraphed congratulations to Tewfik. 

The soldiers in the entrenched camp at Kafr Dowar sur- 
rendered on being summoned, their chief men denouncing 
Arabi, now that he was in misfortune, and protesting that 
they had always been loyal to the Khedive. 

I said that the men in the camp at Kafr Dowar surren- 
dered when summoned, but they were allowed to retain 
their arms till the next morning, when means would be pro- 



60 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

vided for carting them away. When the hour came, how- 
ever, the arms were found already piled, but the men had 
gone. " Gone off to their fields," said their officers. This 
disposal of them was perfectly satisfactory to their English 
conquerors. 

The Khedive next day signed an order for all Egyptian 
soldiers to disband, and the war and the army thus came to 
an end together. 

The next thing to be done was to proceed to the trial of 
the chiefs of the rebelHon. This was no easy matter, for 
with regard to the massacre of June ii at Alexandria, the 
Sultan, the Khedive, and the Governor of Alexandria were 
popularly considered about as guilty as Arabi, they, it was 
said, having connived at the outrages of a riotous mob, 
whose proceedings each imagined might turn to his own 
advantage. I say that this was the popular opinion at the 
time, but the subsequent life of Tewfik Pasha gives no 
ground for beheving him implicated in treachery. I have 
already quoted the opinion of him pubHshed by one Eng- 
lishman ; here is that of another who was for many years 
closely connected with Egyptian affairs : — 

" Within the limitations imposed by his birth, his antece- 
dents, and his position Tewfik was, I believe, honest, kindly, 
and loyal. Of all the dynasty of Mehemet AH there is none 
who after his own fashion had the welfare of Egypt so much 
at heart as the prince who has just been gathered to his 
fathers." 

Arabi was the prisoner of the Enghsh. They had turned 
him over to the Egyptian government to be tried for treason, 
but they meant to stand by and see that he was treated with 
even more than ordinary fairness and humanity. 

He had two EngUsh friends, Sir Charles Wilson and Mr. 
Wilfrid Blunt, the latter a gentleman who has since been in 
prison himself for having violated the laws relating to Irish 
agitators. They provided Arabi with English counsel, but 
counsel for the prisoner or cross-examination on his behalf, 
was not to be allowed on an Egyptian court-martial. 



ARAB I PASHA. 6 1 

The task of trying the rebel ringleaders was confided to 
Riaz Pasha, and was particularly pleasing to him, " for 
clemency," says one who knew him well, " was not among 
his virtues. To him Arabi and his party were simply im- 
pious. They had dared to question his infallibility, — no 
Pope or king by divine right could have felt the outrage 
more. But they were more than that. They were the 
curses of their country, for had they not driven away hinif 
the indispensable first head of the ministry ? Massacre and 
incendiarism might be forgiven, but not that! " 

" There can be no doubt that Riaz Pasha pursued the rebel 
leaders with a deadly zeal, but it is hardly fair to call it hate. 
He would have crushed them, as he would have crushed a scor- 
pion, by any means. It was a holy duty which he owed his 
country. When the English government insisted that the pris- 
oners should have a fair trial, and be defended by counsel, he was 
shocked. It was almost like asking him to be accessory to a 
blasphemy. He gravely assured Lord Duiferin, who had been 
sent to Egypt as envoy of the English government, that he knew 
of their guilt, and asked him what object there was to be gained 
by further inquiry. When he found the ambassador still uncon- 
vinced, he went away mourning at tha extraordinary growth of 
theoretical ideas. When Riaz found that the trial was going to 
be a simple farce, to end in the practical acquittal of the rebel 
prisoners, his indignation knew no bounds. In one stormy inter- 
view with Lord Dufferin his little form shook with rage. He left 
the house, shook the dust off his shoes, and resigned." 

And Arabi's trial was a farce j for after two months, during 
which it became evident that English rules of fair play could 
not be reconciled with Egyptian notions of justice, the mat- 
ter was cut short by Lord Dufferin, who negotiated with the 
Khedive for Arabi's life. There really was no evidence to 
prove anything against him but rebellion. It was arranged 
that he and his friends should plead guilty to this charge, be 
sentenced to death by the Court, and be at once pardoned 
by the Khedive, on condition that they went into exile 
wherever the English government might be pleased to send 
them. 

" The Khedive, though he became a party to this arrange- 



62 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

ment, is said to have bitterly resented the manner in which 
the Enghsh government interfered with the punishment of 
Arabi. To treat the defeated insurgents as well-meaning 
and mistaken patriots, and to condemn them to an honor- 
able exile in lieu of the stern doom which would have been 
meted out to them in every Oriental — or indeed in almost 
every European — country, was to destroy the prestige and 
authority of the sovereign." 

The result of the trial was very destructive to English 
influence in Egypt. It was incomprehensible to Oriental 
men, unless on the ground that if the trial had proceeded 
it would have brought out something which it was the object 
of the English government to conceal. This feeling was 
intensified by the folly of an Enghsh lady (a Mrs. Napier), 
who presented Arabi in open court with a bouquet of white 
roses. 

With many Egyptians, especially in the lower orders, the 
belief in Arabi's divine mission, which some of his followers 
attributed to him, increased ; while with some the conduct 
of the English government was attributed either to some 
purpose of using him as their instrument in the future, — or 
to fear. 

His place of banishment was to be Ceylon, but it was 
given out that he would never go there, or that if he did 
he would raise an army and come back to exterminate 
his enemies. The most moderate Egyptians accused the 
English of having bribed Arabi to surrender by a promise 
of immunity for his past misdeeds, because they were afraid 
of again encountering the prowess of his soldiers. The 
result of the trial was that England lost in one day all the 
prestige she had gained by her victory at Tel el Kebir. 

On the day after Christmas, 1882, Arabi and six other 
principal rebels left Cairo by a special train, at eleven at 
night, for Suez, on their way to Ceylon. They took with 
them sixty people, their wives, servants, and children. 
Morice Bey, an Enghshman in the Egyptian service, went 
with them, and an escort of English soldiers. 



ARABI PASHA. 63 

Sir Garnet Wolseley and Admiral Seymour were raised to 
the English peerage, and received from the Sultan the chief 
decoration of honor of the Turks ; but as, on the same 
day, he gave the same decoration to his bootmaker, the 
honor was valued only for the jewels in its badge. 

An English army of occupation remained in Egypt twelve 
thousand strong ; it would stay there, it was said, till an 
Egyptian army should be organized ; and Lord Dufferin, 
the Enghsh commissioner, was instructed to confer on nine 
points with the Egyptian authorities : — 

I. The reorganization of the army and police. 
II. Reorganization of the financial system. 

III. Improvement in the public service. 

IV. The gradual disuse of Europeans. 
V. Better justice for natives. 

VI. Equal taxation for natives and foreigners. 
VII. The introduction of parliamentary government. 
VIII. Suppression of the slave trade. 
IX. Security of transit across Egypt, and especially freedom 
of passage through the Suez Canal. 

These points have not yet (1895) been definitely settled. 
The constitution drawn up by Lord Dufferin would not 
" march," as Carlyle has said respecting a similar failure, 
and the Enghsh army still stays on, England still steers 
in Egypt the ship of state. 

" Indeed, to withdraw such guidance would be at once to 
force the burthened vessel back upon the reefs of anarchy 
and intrigue, from which the English occupation has res- 
cued it." 

Many new complications have arisen since 1882. The 
position of the Khedive is very much like that of a native 
prince in India under the guardianship of an English 
Resident. France is opposed to England's continued 
occupation of Egypt, but the other Great Powers look 
calmly on. 

The Queen with great joy gave a public welcome to the 
troops, the comrades of her son, who had behaved so 
soldierly at Tel el Kebir. And the " Times " wrote : — 



64 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

" Whose heart would not swell with pride at the sight of 
those bronzed heroes returning home, covered with glory, — 
or at the tale of their noble exploits, the grand forced march 
which secured their position, the adroitly held outposts by 
which they covered the movements of other regiments, the 
perfect disciphne which marked the whole campaign and 
covered the final charge with a glorious victory?" 

In response to this outburst from the public press, a little 
poem was written, signed S. S. S. M. It was published in 
Miss Yonge's Magazine, "The Monthly Packet," and I think 
it too well worth preserving to be omitted here : — 

Heroes? — is that what they say? It is never us that they mean, 
Poor, common privates, — the lowest of all that serve the Queen. 
I say, Bill, old chap, what diO you think? There's a mighty fuss 
About some one; but heroes are swells, you know, — not the 
likes of us. 

Discipline? Ah! that sounds fine! But we. never thought it 

grand, 
Raw recruits in the awkward squad, — just hour after hour 

to stand 
In the hot barrack-yard in the sun, doing "Shoulder arms! 

Right! Left! Wheel!" 
While the sergeant roared himself hoarse. Well! it's finer to 

hear than to feel. 

Grand forced march? — Why, bless your heart, it was only plod, 

plod, plod, 
Hour after hour, mile after mile ; then a snooze on the damp, 

cold sod — 
Up again, and on once more, with the sun beating down on our 

heads, — 
ril warrant we longed for a good night's rest, safe at home in 

our beds. 

As for holding the posts, — well! I don't know, Bill, what you 

say, 
As for me I never had such a dull time, — nor shall, for many a 

day. 
Just sticking there for weeks, doing nothing, right out of the fun, 
Twiddling our thumbs, and listening to catch the sound of a 

gun. 



ARAB I PASHA. 65 

And the " glorious charge " — Ah well ! that was work, no time 

lost there ; 
Yet not such work as you'd think, a good free fight and fair. 
We scarcely saw the foe (the General knew to an inch) — 
Do as you're told — that's what war is, — and never to flinch. 

Friends, don't you sometimes think — when the battle of life is 

o'er, 
And we meet our angel kin, on our own dear native shore, 
We shall see many heroes crowned, in the land of our great new 

birth. 
Whom we little recked of here, in the shadows and mists of 

earth. 

Perfect discipline learned in the drill-yard of every day ; 
Marches of plodding work, step by step on life's weary way ; 
Long patient years on guards never asking the reason why ; 
Short, sharp, strifes of pain — coming — passing — suddenly. 

Do what you're told — that's what life is, and never to flinch. 
Only the General knows, aye. He does know, inch by inch 
The plan of the long campaign ; and, at last, when all is done, 
Crowns the victors, who scarce have known that the fight is 
won! 



CHAPTER III. 

GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 

THE declared policy of Mr. Gladstone's ministry, 
which came into power in 1880, and went out in 
1885, was non-intervention in foreign affairs. "Their own 
talents, they conceived, were best adapted to home politics, 
and, had they been able to carry out their own views, it is 
little they would have had to do with foreign and colonial 
policy. Nevertheless, during their five years of office they 
were constrained to intervene more than any government 
the country had had for the last half century. 

"They were always intervening, and the disastrous conse- 
quences which generally attended their intervention may 
be attributed to their original disinclination to intervene, 

— their intervention generally coming too late, and being 
supported in a half-hearted manner." 

When the Arabi rebellion had been suppressed, and 
Lord Dufferin had been sent out to settle the internal 
administration of Egypt, a large part of the British troops 
returned to England and to India, leaving twelve thousand 
men behind. 

The affairs of Egypt were in wild confusion. Money had 
to be raised to carry on the government, and to pay interest 
to those who had invested in Egyptian bonds, yet humanity 
revolted against the further oppression of the working class, 

— the poor fellaheen. There was the aristocracy of Egypt, 
the Pashas, the Beys, and the old officers of the army hating 
the British; there was the usual Mohammedan detestation 
of Christians; there was the peasant class who, in their 

66 



GORDON AND THE MA HDL 6/ 

ignorance, believed that as they had to be over-worked and 
over-taxed to pay foreign bondholders, it was all the fault 
of Europeans, and they wished them out of the country. 
Then there were the Turks, and above them, and over all, 
the power of the Sultan, intensely disgusted that his author- 
ity over his vassal province of Egypt should have been 
taken out of his hands by unbelievers. But worse than all 
for the English was the complication that arose from their 
position in Egypt, involving the ever-recurring question of 
the European balance of power. Russia resented bitterly 
England's occupation of Egypt. "You might long ago 
have had Egypt, and Syria too," was the thought her minis- 
ters expressed in diplomatic language, " provided you had 
let Russia take Constantinople, — but to let you have Egypt 
without compensation to Russia is unfair, and not to be 
borne." 

France too has always felt that she had the first claim to 
Egypt, if any European power was to possess that country. 
The great Napoleon first opened it to civilization; France 
had been Mehemet All's faithful ally; her engineers had 
built the Suez Canal; — and now to have it taken out of her 
hands by England was, in nursery language, " a great deal 
too bad.''^ Yet she was powerless to do anything to prevent 
it. Her government was unsettled; her finances embar- 
rassed; she had two colonial wars (one in Madagascar, the 
other in Tonquin) on her hands; and a struggle with Ger- 
many was always looming on her horizon ; as well as the 
constantly impending fear of some social revolution at 
home. 

England felt Egypt to be a white elephant with which 
she had embarrassed herself for the sake of India. With 
the high road to her Indian possessions lying along its 
borders, she could not leave it bankrupt and disorganized, 
to become the prey of anarchy, — she could not leave the 
bondholders unpaid when she had guaranteed them pay- 
ment; nor subject the Suez Canal to the interference of 
semi-barbarians. Besides which, civilization and Chris- 



6S EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

tianity cried out, that, having got Egypt under her control, 
it was her duty to endeavor to protect and elevate the 
miserable working people. 

These questions were met by an arrangement that England 
should occupy Egypt so long as might be necessary ; Mr. 
Gladstone insisting strongly on the restriction contained in 
these words, and that she would evacuate it as soon as that 
necessity came to an end. Those who wish to see her give 
it up are somewhat reassured by knowing that there is a 
divided public opinion on the subject in England. The 
army dreads the terrible service in the summer months, and 
all who have friends in the army sympathize. 

While these questions were agitating men's minds, the 
Egyptian government began to be aware of a new impend- 
ing trouble. To understand it we must go back to the days 
of Ismail Pasha's prosperity. 

That potentate, who had great notions of commercial 
enterprise, and of grand schemes, who, in fact, had he 
been born on this side of the Atlantic, would have distin- 
guished himself as a great railroad or real-estate speculator, 
had been struck by the accounts of Central Africa given to 
the world by explorers. He already held Khartoum and 
certain fortified posts in the northern Soudan; his armies 
too were recruited by black troops from the same region. 
His predecessor. Said Pasha, had made a wonderful jour- 
ney, in a carriage, over the roadless desert to Khartoum, 
escorted by an army, which inflicted untold miseries on the 
country through which it passed, but added immensely to 
his prestige and importance. Egyptian princes had before 
that lost their armies and their lives in that wild region, 
while endeavoring to enforce some sort of ancient claim on 
what was called the Nile Basin or the southern Soudan, and 
the Soudan, if Ismail conquered it, would be subject to 
him, not as feudatory of the Sultan, but as an independent 
sovereign. A great deal of trade might be opened, and 
(though this part of the project was not to be talked about) 
the great impetus given to the slave-trade might put hush- 



GORDON AND THE MA HDL 69 

money from the slave dealers into his purse, which needed 
replenishing badly. But as, above all things, he needed 
European sympathy, to say nothing of European capital, 
to carry out his plans, it must be represented to Christen- 
dom that his sole objects were commerce and civilization. 

Lower Egypt is the delta and the country round the 
mouths of the Nile, Upper Egypt is the country extending 
south below Cairo. South of Upper Egypt is what was 
once Nubia, but is now part of Egypt. As the traveller 
up the Nile approaches the Nubian deserts, he finds six 
cataracts, over which, when the river is high, boats, and 
even steamboats, if unloaded, can be warped, though at the 
expense of terrible labor. 

Where the White Nile and the Blue Nile unite is the 
large well-built city of Khartoum, which became a place 
of importance after the Egyptian occupation, and was the 
chief city, if not the capital, of the Khedive's Soudan. 

About three hundred miles northeast of Khartoum, and 
separated from it by a desert, is Suakim, a port on the Red 
Sea, which was taken possession of by the English, in 1882, 
as an admirable point at which they might disembark 
troops from India. However, as yet, we are only speaking 
of 1868 or 1870, when what we call the Soudan was, as I 
have said, called commonly the Basin of the Nile. 

In 1870 harmless villagers and happy unmolested beasts 
lived round the lovely lakes that watered this equatorial 
region. "It was in some parts," says Sir Samuel Baker, 
"as perfect a natural paradise as Xenophon could have 
desired. The peaceful villages were embowered in groves 
of oil palms." 

The spoiler came, — all — all that promise fair 
Soon sought the grave, to sleep forever there. 

The northern portion of the Soudan was conquered by 
Egypt, and opened to slave-raids. 

Sir Samuel Baker, who had first explored these equatorial 
regions, was commissioned by the Khedive Ismail to plant 
there the blessings of Egyptian civilization. 



70 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

Now it is not an easy matter to impose civilization under 
any circumstances upon a primitive and pagan people, but 
civilization, as understood in Egypt, meant oppression and 
robbery, and forced labor, under the stick and the task- 
master. With an Egyptian army of seventeen hundred men, 
mostly officered by Europeans, Sir Samuel Baker, with six 
steamboats and thirty sailing boats, went up the Nile to Khar- 
toum, with carte blanche from Ismail Pasha to manage his 
campaign his own way, and with money to pay all expenses. 
He carried seeds of all kinds, and flattered himself he 
should do much to suppress the slave-trade. In point of 
fact he was completely humbugged. Ismail, who by his 
powers of persuasion could wind most men round his finger, 
had deceived and hoodwinked the gallant English explorer. 

Egyptian rule had not been favorable to civilization in 
Nubia, which was so rapidly becoming depleted by the 
emigration of its inhabitants that much land formerly culti- 
vated was lying waste. The White Nile flows to Khartoum 
from the south, the Blue Nile comes from the southeast, 
along the borders of Abyssinia. Beyond the shores of the 
White Nile lies the province of Kordofan, and to the west 
of Kordofan is Darfour; but these are inhabited by Arab 
tribes who have indeed villages where their cattle and their 
women abide, but the men live chiefly on horseback, and 
are ready at all times for a plundering expedition. There 
were various tribes throughout these provinces, some 
Mohammedan and Arab; others blacks, who believed in 
witchcraft and were-wolves. Some were orderly, and of a 
high type of the negro race; some were "a feeble folk, 
like the conies." All had much cattle, — none felt any 
need of civilization, but were governed by their own head- 
men and chiefs, and paid taxes and tribute to nobody. 
Kordofan and Darfour were not, however, included in the 
equatorial government of Sir Samuel Baker. 

Sir Samuel said : " The Soudan is divided in two by the 
great arid deserts which separate its fertile regions on the 
equator from Egypt." It includes the Victoria and Albert 




TT^^FrfS^^?^ 



SIR SAMUEL BAKER. 



GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 71 

Nyanzas, and from these lakes to the cataracts the Nile 
falls many hundred feet. 

In 1869 (or rather from 1869 to 1875) the Soudan, 
including Nubia, was first annexed to Egypt by an army, 
under a grandson of Mehemet Pasha, but the annexation 
was hardly more than nominal. The governor took up his 
residence at Khartoum, and for a time exerted considerable 
influence over the Arab tribes around him. But there is 
no Egyptian, from the highest to the lowest, who does not 
heartily approve the slave-trade, and hope to profit by it. 
Soon Nubia and the country around Khartoum became 
denuded of young men; all had gone off to join the Arabs, 
who made slave-raids on the peaceful villages lying along 
the equatorial great lakes, as seen by Sir Samuel Baker; 
and under Egyptian rule villages in the Nile Basin, once 
peaceful and populous, entirely disappeared. In Nubia 
irrigation ceased, industry had vanished, oppression had 
driven the inhabitants from the soil. And, as Sir Samuel 
Baker says: "This terrible desolation was caused by the 
Egyptian Governor-general of the Soudan, who, although 
himself an honest man, trusted too much to the honesty of 
others, who preyed on the inhabitants. The population 
of Nubia, the richest province of the Soudan, fled from 
oppression, and the greater part betook themselves to the 
slave-trade on the White Nile in Equatorial Africa, where 
in their turn they could trample on the rights of others, 
where, as they had been plundered, they could plunder. 
Thousands forsook their homes, and commenced a life of 
brigandage on the White Nile." 

Shocked by horrors with which he found himself unable 
to cope, Sir Samuel Baker, after a residence of some years 
at Gondokoro, resigned his government of the Equatorial 
Provinces in 1875. Nubar Pasha, the great minister of 
Ismail Pasha, who had met Colonel Gordon (better known 
as Chinese Gordon at that period), recommended him to 
the Khedive, as the only man likely at once to bring order 
out of anarchy in the Soudan, and whose appointment 



72 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

would be a sop to the anti-slavery party in Christendom, 
who were beginning to understand the real meaning of 
Egyptian annexation and civilization. 

Gordon was offered the appointment. The English 
government approved; and he visited Ismail, rather in 
doubt whether he would enter his service or not. But 
Ismail's persuasive powers triumphed, though Gordon 
refused the ;£io,ooo of yearly pay offered him, and would 
accept only ;^2,ooo, being sure that the surplus, if he 
accepted it, would be wrung from the people. He had 
great misgivings all through his intercourse with Ismail 
Pasha that he would prove to be — as he said himself — "a 
Gordon humbugged." 

From the first he met with worries and opposition from 
the Egyptian authorities. On February 25, 1875, he reached 
Suakim. He had with him two hundred and twenty men, 
who were to escort him across the desert to the town of Ber- 
ber, on the Nile, a march of about two weeks. His second 
in command was an Italian named Romulus Gessi. He was 
also accompanied by two Frenchmen, several Englishmen 
(one of them Dr. Russell, son of the great war correspond- 
ent), Colonel Long, a Baltimorean, and Abou Saoud, an 
ex-slave dealer, whom he had undertaken to convert into 
a respectable trader. 

At Berber they embarked in a boat, and thence reached 
Khartoum in three days. There Gordon was received with 
great delight. The seat of his government was to be at 
Gondokoro, and the Governor-general had been employing 
his soldiers in clearing out the immense masses of vegeta- 
tion, forming floating islands, that choked the channel of 
the White Nile, so that the passage from Khartoum to 
Gondokoro, which it had taken Sir Samuel Baker fourteen 
months to accomplish, was made in three weeks by Gordon. 

His journey to Gondokoro was very picturesque and 
interesting, but we have no space to dwell upon it here. 
His great object was to suppress the slave-trade, and his 
vigorous efforts to do so brought down on him the opposi- 



GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 73 

tion of all the Arab tribes, and all those who had now 
turned to slave-trading to get a living. 

Already Osman Digna, a man who had made an immense 
fortune by slave-trafific under the new Egyptian system, 
and who lost it when Sir Samuel Baker and the English 
began to carry out their plans, had assembled chiefs, out- 
raged by British opposition to the slave-trade, near Suakim, 
and proposed to them to make a stand against these new 
rulers. But the time was not ripe. The chiefs declined 
his leadership, and for several years he went back into 
obscurity. 

Sir Samuel Baker, on resigning his commission to 
Gordon, had said: "The Nile has been opened to naviga- 
tion, and if the troubles I have encountered and overcome 
shall have smoothed the path for my able and energetic 
successor I shall have been well rewarded." 

I cannot find space to give a description of the White 
Nile slave-trade; the peaceful villages visited ten years 
before by Sir Samuel Baker, Dr. Schweinfurth, and Captain 
Speke had been set upon by slave-raiders; slaves, seized 
by fraud or force, were marched through the desert, with 
unspeakable horrors, and with frightful loss of life. They 
were brought to the neighborhood of Khartoum, and again 
marched across deserts to various points, many being 
shipped on Arab dhows to Persia or Arabia. 

It was not long before Abou Saoud, the reformed slave- 
dealer, proved utterly untrustworthy. He seems to have 
been a consummate hypocrite and an unmitigated rascal. 
He, as well as Osman Digna, was connected with the great 
slave-dealing firm of Agad and Company. 

Gordon's efforts in his government were, besides raids 
for the capture of the slave-dealers, and the liberation of 
their victims, attempts to introduce real civilization, such 
as a knowledge of the use of money, among his people. 
He also at once commenced the construction of posts from 
fifty to a hundred miles apart, to keep open communication 
between Gondokoro and Khartoum. The first six hundred 



74 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

miles of the fourteen hundred lying between these points 
gave him little difficulty, but where the great river was 
joined by the Sobat his difficulties began. The authority 
of the Khedive no longer maintained at least a semblance 
of law and order. Gordon was also much occupied in nurs- 
ing the sick, for members of his staff were continually ill. 
It would be impossible here to tell of his doings in this 
his first government of a province in the Soudan. But at 
the close of 1875 he writes to some one who had urged him 
to explore the sources of the Nile : — 

" I am now, at the end of nine months of worry, not fit 
to explore anything but my way out of this province, — 
indeed, I am not sure I care whether there are two lakes 
or a million in Equatorial Africa; or whether the Nile has 
a source or not." 

In the autumn of 1876, having arranged things pretty 
satisfactorily in his government, he left it under the charge 
of Gessi, and returned to England, to keep Christmas at 
home. He was very much inclined not to go back. He 
felt himself "a Gordon humbugged," for whilst he, in the 
name of the Khedive, was putting down the slave-trade in 
his province, the Khedive's representative, a prince of the 
blood, was patronizing it at Khartoum, which was the very 
centre of the slave traffic. Rather than submit to former 
troubles and disappointments, he said, he would throw up 
his connection with the country. But Ismail, by his per- 
suasive speeches, lured him back. He was now offered the 
post of Governor-general of the Soudan, with liberty to do 
what he pleased in Khartoum. 

He was to suppress the slave-trade, and improve means 
of communication throughout the Soudan, and he was also 
to settle, if possible, a pending dispute with King John of 
Abyssinia. He visited that potentate as envoy from the 
Khedive of Egypt, but the hatred of King John and his 
people toward the Egyptians was so great that he had much 
difficulty in getting out of Abyssinia alive. 

Telegraph wires had been stretched by Ismail from Cairo 



GORDON AND THE MA HDL 75 

to the Soudan, and a Nilometer had been established near 
Khartoum, which would give warning to Egypt many days 
in advance before the river's rising. Ismail also projected 
a railroad, and Gordon was directed to inquire into all 
matters affecting that enterprise. 

Troubles and worries, however, accumulated around him. 
The slave dealers, and those in their interest, were furious, 
but he had the satisfaction of liberating twelve caravans 
of slaves. The slaves were not much better than the men 
who had captured them: when liberated they were quite 
eager to join slave- hunting raids. 

There is a striking episode in this part of Gordon's 
career, the pursuit of Suleiman, the son of Zebdhr Pasha, 
by Gessi, Gordon's lieutenant; his capture, with that of 
his force, and the shooting of himself and ten other chiefs, 
when taken prisoners. Zebdhr Pasha told his own story 
some years after, to an English lady, who printed it in an 
English magazine. If one may believe him, he was an 
honest man, and a great admirer of Gordon, whose lieu- 
tenant, he thinks, executed his son through a mistake; — 
but then, how can American or English ladies know how far 
to believe an Oriental? 

After three years of hard labor and discomfort in his 
government, Gordon resigned. He had been sent on a 
second mission to King John of Abyssinia, had been taken 
prisoner by him, had, he conceived, been deserted by the 
Egyptian government, and had been rescued by the timely 
arrival of the Sea Gull, a British steamer. It is said that 
King John sent for him when a prisoner. The King sat 
on his throne, and a chair was placed for Gordon Pasha in 
an inferior position. The first thing Gordon did was to 
carry the chair to a place beside the seat of his Majesty. 
"Do you know, Gordon Pasha," said the King, "that I 
could kill you on this spot if I liked?" "I am perfectly 
well aware of it, your Majesty," said the prisoner. "Do 
so at once if it is your royal pleasure. I am ready." 
"What! ready to be killed?" cried the king. "Cer- 



"J^ EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

tainly," said the Pasha, "I am always ready to die, and, 
so far from fearing your putting me to death, you will only 
confer a favor on me by doing for me that which I am 
precluded by my religion from doing for myself; — ^you 
would relieve me from all the troubles and misfortunes 
which the future may have in store for me." This com- 
pletely staggered the king. "Then my power," he cried, 
"has no terrors for you?" "None whatever;" was the 
Pasha's answer. 

" I claim only," he said himself in a letter on the subject 
of his resignation, " to have done my best for the land, the 
government of which was entrusted to me. I dare to assert 
that, in spite of all my errors, the population of the Soudan 
loves me. A man must be in the Soudan and see how things 
go with his own eyes to know how matters stand there." 

Gordon returned to England, and then accepted the post 
of secretary to Lord Ripon, who was going out to India as 
its governor. The engagement, however, did not last long. 
Meantime, his old government in the Soudan began to be 
seriously threatened by the rise of the Mahdi. 

The meaning of the words El Mahdi is : He who is led 
— the well-guided one. The fundamental idea of Moham- 
medanism is that man cannot rightly guide himself, and 
that to him in his ignorance God sends prophets, who give 
him knowledge of what ought to be done. 

Mahomet never claimed to be the final prophet; after 
him he prophesied should come other Mahdis, till the 
appearance of the greatest of them all. If any Mahdi 
failed in his mission that would prove him to be only the 
forerunner of the Great Mahdi. This personage would 
appear after the failures of such forerunners, and directly 
after the appearance of the Messiah of Jews and Christians. 
Then Mahdi and Messiah would unite, and give laws to all 
the earth in the name of the One God.^ No less than five 
Mahdis (some authorities say twelve) appeared before the 

1 It is said that in the royal stables of Persia two horses are always 
kept saddled in readiness for the Mahdi, and his lieutenant, Jesus the 
son of Mary. 



GORDON AND THE MAHDL 77 

Mahdi of the Soudan; and his successor, the Khalifa 
Abdullah, though he has not arrogated to himself the title 
of Mahdi, is looked on much in the same light by his fol- 
lowers. There is also, at this moment, a very powerful 
though non-militant Mahdi in Northern Africa, a descend- 
ant of the Prophet, with blue eyes, and other bodily 
marks that were to denote the Mahdi at his coming. He 
is the Sheikh Senoussi of Jerboub, and for more than sixty 
years he and his father have exercised immense influence 
— in the main beneficent — over the Moslems in Tripoli 
and Morocco, and the black Moslems of Central Africa, 
west of the Soudan. 

The first Mahdi appeared in Persia, and was the founder 
of the Persian schism. He was a descendant of Fatima, 
Mahomet's favorite wife, and his followers are called 
Fatimidse. The next was the Veiled Prophet, whom we 
know in poetry. He also appeared in Persia. Then came 
one in Northern Africa, among the Saracen Moors. Next 
appeared a Mahdi in Asiatic Turkey in 1666, in the days 
of the Sultan who almost made himself master of Vienna. 
That year, too, the Messiah was expected by Jews and 
Christians in the East, and at the time appointed appeared 
a very handsome, eloquent young man, apparently inspired 
with religious fervor. The Rabbis in Turkey acknowledged 
him, and his appearance lent great countenance to the 
Mahdi, as the Great Mahdi and the Messiah were to appear 
almost at the same time. 

But the Mahdi was taken prisoner, and carried before 
the Sultan, when he confessed his imposture with so good 
a grace that the Sultan forgave him, and made him one of 
his pages. The anti-Christ was also captured. His pre- 
tensions were shaken when it was found that he needed an 
interpreter to speak with the Sultan, who promised to 
acknowledge his mission if he would be tied naked to a 
tree and have arrows shot at him. He declined this 
ordeal, whereupon the Sultan forgave him, and made him 
one of the warders of his harem. 



y^ EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

In 1799 a Mahdi appeared in Egypt, who was killed by 
the French in battle. In vain his followers expected his 
return, but as the French soon after retired from Egypt it 
was supposed that his prayers for their departure had pre- 
vailed in heaven. 

In the year eighteen hundred and eighty, by reason of 
some prophecy, Mahdis were expected in the Mohammedan 
world. El Senoussi of Jerboub appeared in the deserts to 
the south of Tripoli, and the man whom we call par excel- 
lence the Mahdi in the Soudanese province of Darfour. 

His name was Mohammed Ahmed. He was the son of 
a man named Abdullah, and his mother's name was Fatima. 
These names, according to prophecy, were to be those of 
the parents of the Mahdi. Mohammed Ahmed was forty 
years old at the time of his appearance (the same age as 
the Great Prophet), and he had a peculiar mark upon his 
face which was to be one of the personal marks of the true 
Mahdi. From his childhood he had showed a vocation for 
piety; when twelve years old he knew the Koran by heart. 
His brothers, who were boat-builders on the Nile, were 
proud of his talent and sanctity, and supported him while 
he pursued his studies at Khartoum. Finally, when twenty- 
five, he became a hermit in a little island in the Nile, 
called Aba. Soon he began to be venerated as a saint, and 
when he had been fifteen years engaged in prayer and 
meditation, like Mahomet, and was, like him, forty years of 
age, he came forth a Mahdi. He said his mission was to 
bring the Egyptian government to an end, to draw all the 
Soudan to himself, and then to go up to Mecca and be 
there acknowledged as the man whose course had been 
guided by the Lord. 

The Egyptian world had so much besides to engross its 
attention, about that time, that the Mahdi 's emissaries had 
been preaching a year before the governor of Khartoum 
so much as heard of him. When he did so he sent two 
hundred men to Aba to seize him. These two hundred 
men, after suffering incredible hardships on their march, 



GORDON AND THE MAHDL 79 

were set upon by the dervishes (such was the name given 
to the Mahdi's sworn followers), and every one of them 
perished. This was in August, 1881. This victory gave 
the Mahdi great prestige. All the Soudan desired to get 
rid of the Egyptians (whom they call Turks) and of the 
Europeans. Thousands flocked to his standard. With 
fifty thousand men the Mahdi's brothers defeated a large 
Egyptian force sent against him. They were both killed, 
but only one hundred and fifty Egyptians escaped. 

From that time till 1883 the Mahdi's successes increased. 
Whole provinces gave him their allegiance. The town of El 
Obeid fell into his hands, and became in some sort his capi- 
tal and stronghold. It is situated northwest of Khartoum, 
distant from it probably about one hundred miles. A brave 
English Indian officer, named Hicks, was placed in com- 
mand of the Egyptian army, or rather was made military 
dry nurse to a certain Suleiman Pasha, who was nominally 
the chief general. At first he obtained some slight advan- 
tages along the shores of the Vv^hite Nile over the Mahdi's 
followers, but in an expedition to recover El Obeid he 
marched, encumbered by heavy artillery and much bag- 
gage, through waterless deserts. His followers were de- 
spondent, for the Egyptian troops at that day were un- 
mitigated cowards. "Conies," Gordon afterwards always 
called them. "In case of defeat," writes one who was 
with the expedition, "not a soul of ours will escape massa- 
cre, and Khartoum and the entire Soudan will then be lost, 
since all believe the Mahdi is the Mohammedan Messiah." 

By November 23, 1882, news reached England that Hicks 
Pasha's force was utterly annihilated, and that all his 
artillery ammunition and stores had fallen into the hands 
of the Mahdi. Part of the army is said to have fought 
three days, and Hicks died, sword in hand, with his 
European officers, but a large portion of the force went 
over to the Mahdi. As the writer just quoted had prophe- 
sied, all the Soudan became his, except the garrisoned 
cities Khartoum, Sennaar, and Kassala. 



80 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

But the Mahdi's most important acquisition was Osman 
Digna, son of a Turkish father and an Arab mother, who, 
after living in retirement since 1878, suddenly sprung forth, 
asserting a divine mission to be a military leader under the 
Mahdi. It seems that Osman, and the greater part of the 
Mahdi's followers, were genuine enthusiasts, — genuine 
believers in his divine mission. Osman became one of 
the dervishes, men who proclaimed universal brotherhood, 
community of property, rigorous self-denial in all luxuries, 
even tobacco, and who wore red and green, the Mahdi's 
colors. 

Suakim was Osman Digna' s country, and he looked on 
it as a point of especial importance, for two reasons; there 
the English could land troops from India, and there eventu- 
ally the Mahdi would embark, when he should go to Mecca 
in triumph, his mission being done. 

Osman Digna commanded all forces between Khartoum 
and Suakim, — all, in other words, between the White Nile 
and the sea. The Mahdi, who was not deficient in general- 
ship, commanded all west and south of Khartoum, notably 
in the provinces of Darfour and Kordofan. 

One can imagine the effect upon the Arabs of what they 
believed to be a divine voice crying in the wilderness, 
and proclaiming that the Soudan should be free for the 
Soudanese — no more Egyptians; no more taxes to be paid 
over to European bondholders; no more interference with 
their profits in slave-trading; no more rich, and no more 
poor; all to share alike. No distinction was to be allowed 
but tribal distinction. Osman himself was as ragged and 
as dirty as the poorest of his followers, but he became the 
inspired agent of the Mahdi, and led a holy war against 
the infidel. 

Here is a specimen of the persuasions circulated in the 
Anglo-Egyptian army. One can imagine their effect : — 

" By the great God and the excellent Koran we swear that our 
Mahdi is the true Mahdi, — the expected One. There is none 
other but him, and the man who doubts his mission is an infidel ; 



GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 8 1 

and God has already decreed it. The Mahdi seeks no treasure 
for himself; he seeks nothing but God. He is kind, and speaks 
civilly to all. He abhors falsehoods, and his pride is to spread 
the glory of our religion. His daily life (peace be unto him) is 
quite opposed to worldly matters ; nor does he care for enjoy- 
ment. He is simple in his diet, and plain in dress. He is always 
smiling, and his face is as resplendent as the full moon. All 
Muslims to him are equal. Like a kind father to his children, so 
much is his kindness to us. We all receive a sufficient sum from 
his treasury for the support of our needs and families ; but do not 
get any fixed pay." 

Soon Osman Digna held all the country around Suakim, 
the Mahdi all that around Khartoum. All was in the hands 
of the dervishes except the towns of Suakim, Tokar, and 
Sinkat, in the district of Osman Digna; Khartoum and 
the fortified cities Kassala and Sennaar. The gallant 
little garrison of Sinkat held out long, till, reduced to 
chew leaves, the only eatable thing remaining, they put 
their women and children in their midst and made a sortie. 
All perished. The Tokar garrison was more fortunate. 
It was relieved eventually by General Sir Gerald Graham, 
with English troops landed on their way home from India. 
Valentine Baker (brother of Sir Samuel Baker) had been 
the most distinguished of all English cavalry officers. In 
India, in 1848, in the Mutinj'', and at the Cape, wher- 
ever he had served, he had given an example of cool 
courage, presence of mind in peril, and extraordinary 
military skill. He had also written books on tactics of 
great authority in the English army. He was on the high 
road to be the military chief of England, when one summer 
day, about 1875, he breakfasted with the Prince of Wales 
at Aldershot. The day was warm, and the champagne too 
abundant. Colonel Baker went up to London in a first- 
class railway carriage, in which he was alone with a young 
lady. He insulted her grossly, doing her, however, no 
harm. The moment the train reached London she told 
her brother, who had come to meet her, and he put the 
offender in charge of the police. Colonel Baker was con- 



82 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

demned to a year's imprisonment, and dismissed the 
English army. On the trial he at least behaved like a 
gentleman, acquitting the young lady of all blame, and 
taking the whole fault on himself. 

After his disgrace he joined the Turkish army, and 
brilliantly distinguished himself. Subsequently he was in 
Egypt, and was sent with an Egyptian army against Osman 
Digna. 

In February, 1883, there were three massacres in Osman 
Digna's district, — that of Sinkat, that of Moncrieff, and 
that of the forces under Valentine Baker. 

Baker's troops were a forlorn rabble; they did not even 
know how to handle their guns. They could just load and 
pull the trigger. " It is ridiculous to call them soldiers," 
said their unfortunate commander, as he reviewed them, 
before setting forth on his campaign; and when the moment 
of danger arrived, and the Arab rush came on with swift 
sturdiness, the Egyptians broke into wild panic, flung away 
their guns, and vainly prayed for mercy. 

A few days after this, English troops returning from India 
steamed into Suakim. General Sir Gerald Graham was in 
command. The troops were marched straight from the 
ship to the field of action, across the desert, and, at the 
wells of El Teb, the scene of Baker's defeat, and within 
sight of the unburied corpses of his Egyptians, they won a 
victory, not, however, without some difficulty, for the Arab 
rush staggered even the Highlanders. We all know Kip- 
ling's generous tribute to Arab courage in his stirring 
barrack ballad of " Fuzzy-wuzzy. " 

Before the battle Osman Digna solemnly blessed his 
soldiers' clubs, charging them to strike with them the legs 
of their enemies' horses. Sir Gerald Graham followed up 
the victory at El Teb by another at a place called Tamai, 
where the fighting was hand to hand, — a series, as it were, 
of Homeric scrimmages; and by these victories the power 
of Osman Digna was thought to be broken. It was by no 
means so. Osman Digna soon took possession of an 



GORDON AND THE MAHDL 83 

entrenched camp at Tamanieb, and the English army held 
little more than the port of Suakim for several years. 

We must go back now to Gordon. When the Mahdi 
had got possession of half the Soudan, and Osman Digna 
of nearly all the other half, the English government came 
to the conclusion, long held by its employes, that the 
Soudan had never been anything but a strain and a drain 
to Egypt, that its petty princes (sultans they called them- 
selves) had been unjustly dispossessed fifteen years before 
by Ismail Pasha, and that the Soudan had better be given 
up to the Soudanese. How far this policy was wise has 
been since a serious question. Some think that it has cost 
more to keep the Soudanese out of Egypt than it would 
have done to govern them. At the time, however, there 
remained the problem how were the garrisons, and the 
families compromised by their adherence to the English 
and Egyptians, to be got safely out of Khartoum, Sennaar, 
and Kassala? The common voice cried : " Gordon ! " The 
English prime minister at that period was Mr. Gladstone, 
and he seems to have had some mistrust of Gordon's 
sagacity. The ministry resisted the cry for Gordon as long 
as it dared. He had been already recalled by the King of 
the Belgians from the Holy Land, where he was travelling, 
Bible in hand. King Leopold wanted him to go on his 
service to the Congo, but now his country claimed his help, 
and he accepted immediately. It is said that in official 
circles, on his appointment, he was treated with scant 
courtesy, but the heart of the people went with him on his 
perilous mission; and waiting for him at the railway sta- 
tion, when he began his journey, he found three gentlemen, 
— one a secretary in the War Ofhce, who opened his car- 
riage door ; one the Commander in chief, who seized his 
valise; and the other a prince of the blood, who rushed to 
buy his ticket. He reached his destination at the close of 
January, 1884. 

I should like to tell the story of Gordon's life, and 
especially of that part of his career which caused him to 



84 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

be best known among his countrymen by the name of 
Chinese Gordon, but it is impossible to give space here 
to anything that does not directly concern Europe in 
Africa. 

I have already told briefly something of Gordon's first 
mission to the Soudan. He had been part of the European 
commission to the Danube in 187 1, and he had there 
inspired Nubar Pasha, the vizier of the Viceroy of Egypt, 
with great confidence in his character. His title was His 
Excellency General Gordon, Governor General of the Equa- 
tor under the Khedive of Egypt. "A queer mixture," he 
calls it. On that occasion he started for the Soudan the 
very day that the news of Livingstone's death was received 
in England. 

When he reached Gondokoro the misery that he found 
around him, in lands happy and well cultivated ten years 
before, filled his heart with anguish. "No one," he said, 
" can conceive the utter misery of these lands. It seems 
as if over them Azrael, the Angel of Death, had spread his 
wings; " and yet elsewhere he declares, "I sometimes think 
there is more happiness among these poor blacks than 
among our own middle classes. When any prosperity 
comes to them they enjoy it to the full." 

The English government had fully decided to force the 
Khedive to abandon the Soudan, and Gordon went there 
on his third mission to govern Khartoum and its vicinity 
till the country should be evacuated, and the English could 
bring away in safety the Egyptian garrisons. 

On his way to his post he had an interview at Cairo with 
Zebdhr Pasha, and the two men understood and forgave 
each other. The result of this better understanding was, 
that when difficulties thickened around Gordon he besought 
the English government to send him Zebdhr, "the only 
man in whom was help." 

Unhappily, in Memoirs of Gordon, and in newspaper 
correspondence, Zebdhr had, for some years, been held up 
to reprobation as the great slave-dealer, the Pasha who had 




GENERAL GORDON. 



GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 85 

enriched himself by slave-trading, and whose son had been 
slain in consequence. 

The English government, in its extremity, might have 
complied with Gordon's wish but for the opposition of 
Lord Randolph Churchill. They did not, therefore, per- 
mit Gordon to have Zebdhr's help; they feared public 
antislavery opinion at home. 

Gordon reached Khartoum on his fatal mission in Feb- 
ruary, 1884. The forces of the Mahdi had not yet drawn 
near, though Mohammed Ahmed, flushed with success, and 
animated by the fanaticism of his followers, was every day 
growing more formidable. Nearly all the Arabs had left 
the city, leaving behind them wives and children. If the 
Mahdi should be victorious they had joined with him; if 
Gordon should be successful then pardon would be pleaded 
for them by their children and their wives. 

Gordon put up boxes at two of the gates soon after his 
arrival, to receive petitions for the redress of grievances; 
he investigated the prisons, he reassured those who dreaded 
lest he had come to demand arrears of taxes due to the 
Egyptian government by burning all the ledgers in the tax 
office, and he made a great bonfire of all whips and instru- 
ments of torture, as a practical object lesson of a total 
change of policy. He proclaimed the Soudan for the Sou- 
danese. He also officially proclaimed that he should no 
longer interfere with slavery, that in that, as in other things, 
the Anglo-Egyptian government gave up its authority, and 
the people of the Soudan must do that which seemed best 
in their own eyes; — only until he had withdrawn the 
garrison from Khartoum, and the other fortified cities, his 
authority in Khartoum and the country that surrounded it 
must be considered supreme. 

At first he hoped that the Mahdi might be willing to 
make peace, and offered him the sultanate of the province 
of Kordofan, but the Mahdi refused, sending him the robe 
of a dervish, and inviting him to embrace Islamism, and 
acknowledge him as the Mahdi. 



86 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

After that the year 1884 rolled slowly on. Gordon could 
have left Khartoum at any time, but he would not abandon 
his Egyptian garrison to the tender mercies of their enemies, 
nor those who had compromised themselves by friendliness 
to the English, or to the Egyptian government. Nor would 
he desert the garrisons of Sennaar and Kassala. 

From time to time he sent away women and children, 
the aged and the sick, for he had two little steamers that 
plied between Khartoum and the sixth cataract; steamers 
that were very precious to him, because he thought that 
they would aid the English advance after it had passed the 
cataracts. 

His whole soul was watching for the arrival of English 
troops which were to assist in drawing off the garrisons. 
But alas ! there were all sorts of divided counsels concerning 
Egyptian affairs in the English cabinet. The starting of 
the expedition was repeatedly put off from week to week. 
Sometimes it was proposed to Gordon to embark on one of 
his steamers and come away from Khartoum. This pro- 
posal made him furious, and then it made him sorry. His 
answer to such propositions was ever : " Could you do such 
a thing?" 

All through that year of longing and disappointment he 
kept up his lifelong determination to have a hand yet, if 
he lived, in the destruction of the slave-trade at its source. 
He wrote : — 

"In January, 1886, we will, D. V., be at Bahr-el-Ghazal, 
and co-operating with the King of the Belgians, and with 
Henry Stanley. We will take back every province from 
the slave-traders. But these are secret prophecies." 

The population of Khartoum consisted for the most part 
of Arabs and the Soudanese, who were in general secretly 
inclined to the Mahdi. Of these an English gentleman 
said in those days: "They are splendid fellows, ground 
down, and robbed by every Egyptian rufhan who has money 
enough to buy himself free license to rob. They are quite 
right to rebel and hurl to destruction this nest of robbers." 



GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 8/ 

By and by the telegraph wires were cut, and communi- 
cation with England became precarious. Gordon knew 
that an expeditionary force was fitting out — was coming. 
But why did it not come? 

At last it moved, but three weeks too late for boats to 
be warped over the cataracts without a fearful expenditure 
of labor and loss of time. Every day the Nile was sinking 
— sinking that year earlier than usual. 

A brigade of English sailors, and subsequently of Cana- 
dian voyageurs, was stationed at the cataracts to help forward 
the boats. One of the officers commanding this brigade 
was Lieutenant Rudolph de Lisle, of an old English Roman 
Catholic family, a man who must have been like-minded 
with Gordon, however much they differed upon points 
of faith. 

At last the steamers were over the falls, and the army on 
its march across the desert. Gordon sent down his boats 
with the last of his countrymen. Colonel Stewart and Mr. 
Power, to effect communication with the advancing force. 
The steamer was stranded on a sandbank in the river. 
Stewart and those with him were invited on shore and 
treacherously murdered, and Gordon was left, the only 
Englishman in Khartoum, with the force of the Mahdi 
closing round him. He had sent off his last journal in 
the steamer. His biographer tells us : — 

" The old men and women had now gone, and Gordon 
ordered all the empty quarters of the town to be pulled 
down, and walled in the rest. Meantime he built himself 
a tower of observation, from the top of which he could 
command the whole country round. At dawn he slept, by 
day he went his rounds, looked to his defenses, adminis- 
tered justice, cheered the spirits of his people, did such 
battle as he could with famine and discontent. At night 
he mounted to the top of his tower, and there, alone with 
his duty and his God, a universal sentinel, he kept watch 
over his ramparts, and prayed for help that never came." 
On November 4, 1884, he had a gleam of hope, as he knew 



SB EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

that Lord Wolseley's expeditionary force was not far off; 
but the Mahdi was only eight hours distant from Khartoum. 

Nearer and nearer the relieving force fought its way 
onward. The Naval Brigade and some other troops had 
a terrible battle with the enemy at the wells of Abu Klea, 
where young Rudolph de Lisle was killed, and there was 
another severe struggle at the wells of Gulkul. But at last 
it was reported that a small advanced guard under Sir 
Charles Wilson was on its way up the river in steamers 
that had been warped over the cataracts by the Naval 
Brigade, and was approaching Khartoum. Then came the 
news, like a thunderbolt. Through treachery the gates of 
Khartoum had been opened to the Mahdi, the garrison had 
been massacred, Gordon had fallen. 

For a long time England refused to believe the news. 
There was no clear account of Gordon's death; he might 
have escaped, he might have gone south in disguise and 
joined Emin Bey near the equator. Years after, when a 
mysterious white pasha was talked about in Equatorial 
Africa, many admitted a wild hope that it might be Gordon 
yet alive. But alas ! there was really no room to doubt, 
although, until long afterwards, Christendom knew not how 
he died. 

Some said he was struck down as he came out of his 
house to rally his troops for the last time; some said he 
was brought before the Mahdi and hewn in pieces, after 
he had refused to embrace Mohammedanism. 

In January, 1889, however, an English paper published 
an account of his death, sent by its correspondent Irom 
Suakim. It is the narrative of a Greek who was in Khar- 
toum when it was taken, and who escaped in the disguise 
of one of the Mahdi's dervishes: — 

" I was at Khartoum the night that it was taken. The 
Nile had gone down so that part of Khartoum was open. 
That night Faragh Pasha, in whom Gordon had entire 
confidence, treacherously removed his troops out of the 
way." 



GORDON AND THE MAHDL 89 

"Do you believe," the narrator was asked, "that if the 
British had arrived three days earlier Khartoum would have 
fallen? " The man replied — 

" If the British, or even a few of them, had arrived one 
hour before the attack the place would not have been taken, 
and the troops would have fought to the last. Faragh had 
sent word to the Mahdi : 'Unless you attack to-night all is 
lost.' In that night all was blood and flame. The city 
passed over from the command of Gordon to that of the 
Mahdi. It was a dire — a dreadful night. I shall remem- 
ber it to my dying day. The air smelt of blood. I had 
a Mahdi uniform given to me by an Arab friend. I has- 
tened to put it on. Seeing me in the uniform some Arabs 
rushed in and ordered me to the Government House, 
where, they said, all the Arab officers of the Mahdi had 
gone to kill Gordon Pasha. I saw Gordon Pasha smoking 
a cigarette on the balcony facing the river. We had entered 
the courtyard from the back. The gate was smashed in. 
With Gordon was standing the Doctor Giorgio Demetrio, 
and the Greek consul. Five hundred dervishes, who had 
been sent by the Mahdi with especial orders to take Gordon 
Pasha alive, stood at the foot of the staircase. I went up 
the stairs, being pushed up by the men below who were 
vociferating, * Gordon Pasha ! Gordon Pasha ! ' Gordon 
coolly left the balcony. ' Fly,' said his two friends; ' fly 
while there is yet time. Go in at the little door, and take 
the little boat ! ' * Shall I fly and leave my post? ' Gordon 
replied, indignantly. ' That would indeed be a disgrace. 
I shall not fly. ' He then went into his inner room and 
put on his full uniform and sword. Then came he forth 
grandly. He drew himself up to his full height. ' Whom 
seek ye ? ' he asked, gazing on the sea of fierce angry faces 
of dervishes he saw below, and hearing the clamor of their 
angry voices. * Gordon Pasha ! ' they cried aloud. ' You 
want him — do you?' he replied. On his visage was a 
look of scorn. * I am he. Come up hither.' Again 
Giorgio Demetrio and the Greek consul urged him to fly. 



90 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

but he spurned their advice, crying, ' Shame ! Would you 
have me abandon my post ignominiously? " He could 
easily have escaped at the rear. I have said before that 
the dervishes were ordered not to kill Gordon, but to stay 
in the courtyard. In fact, they had been ordered to kill 
no one in the palace. There were five hundred of them. 
They hoisted their flag over the gate. So it came to pass 
that those dervishes still remained below while Gordon 
Pasha stood in a bold attitude at the head of the staircase. 
Then came up some of the Mahdi's generals, — one Nasr, 
and another, nephew of a dervish of distinction. The 
dervishes allowed them to pass, seeing they were men in 
authority. They ascended the stairs and asked for the 
Pasha. Gordon met them, saying : * I am Gordon Pasha. ' 
He then handed them his sword in military fashion, inti- 
mating that he knew they had taken the place, and that 
consequently he surrendered, according to the rules of war. 
But Nasr snatched hold of his sword; at the same moment, 
in a brutal and most cowardly fashion, he struck Gordon 
an unexpected blow. The Pasha would have, of course, 
fought desperately to the last had he not thought he would 
be treated in an honorable manner. He fell, and rolled 
down the stairs, and as he rolled another general spear&d 
him in the left side. It was a grievous wound. Thus 
died Gordon. I was there, a spectator of the ghastly deed. 
I got out of the way as he rolled down the stairs. Now, 
when Hadji el Zobeir, the Mahdi's treasurer, saw these 
things, and what had befallen Gordon, he was sorely vexed, 
and drawing near, cried out : ' Wallah ! have they killed 
thee ? May Allah require thy blood at their hands ! May 
thy blood be upon their heads ! May Allah punish them ! ' 
"Some say that Gordon was cut up in little pieces; 
others that they embalmed his body, and sent it to the 
Mahdi. There were bodies cut up, but I am inclined to 
believe they were the bodies of the consul and the doctor, 
not Gordon's. The blacks fought bravely, but when they 
saw that all was over they surrendered and were made pris- 



GORDON AND THE MAHDL 9 1 

oners. The Arabs took one day massacring the Egyptian 
soldiers, but they spared the regiments that let them in." 

No hands gave Gordon Christian burial. But at Wind- 
sor, in a glass case, is his Bible, given by his sister, Miss 
Gordon, to the Queen, v/ho had asked for the privilege of 
looking over it. It is open at a marked passage. 

Memorial institutions have been got up to his memory. 
One may almost say a whole world mourned him. But 
surely he has not suffered and died in vain ! Gordon hap- 
pily extricated from his distresses would have been little 
more to the heart of the world than any other Christian 
man might have been. When the destruction of the slave- 
trade comes, and when "the Morian's land shall stretch 
out her hands to God," surely Gordon will stand foremost 
among Africa's deliverers, though, humanly speaking, his 
earthly mission failed. God laid aside that tool and took 
up others, but that tool had been instrumental in pressing 
on that work towards its completion. 

"All Christendom," said the "Daily Telegraph," "turned 
its eyes to that lonely Englishman ready to ransom the lives 
of his black people with his own blood, and comprehended 
that the story of the Divine Founder had a new illustration." 

The Roman Catholic organ, the "Tablet," thus speaks of 
Gordon : " He died as he had lived, true to his trust, and 
faithful to the end. Nor will any one who can get out of 
his eyes the dust of the present say that he has died in 
vain. His immediate effort has been foiled, and the city 
he strove for has fallen, but it is still true that the grandest 
heritage a hero can leave his race is to have been a hero. 
His memory, the memory of a soldier whose life was will- 
ingly laid down for the people he went to save, and whose 
strength through life was his strong trust in God, may yet 
be a source of inspiration to generations not yet born." 

We know of Gordon's life up to the two weeks before 
his death from his letters and his journals. Of what hap- 
pened afterwards very little is known, but here is the story 
of one who formed part of the Egyptian garrison, and who 



92 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY, 

related it subsequently to a correspondent of the "Daily 

News " : — 

"We had a great illumination the night Gordon arrived at 
Khartoum. If all Christians were like him all the world would 
become Nazarenes, but you do not follow the teachings of your 
own Prophet as we Mussulmans do. . . . But bad tidings came 
day by day of the approach of the cursed Arabs. They had been 
hovering around us a long time before the Pasha arrived. Then 
Gordon set every man to work to dig a trench and make a para- 
pet. We had many traitors. They were known to the Pasha, 
but he said : ' Let them alone ; in the end they shall be punished.' 
For a good while provisions came into Khartoum across the river. 
Gordon used to say to all who wanted to leave, '• Stay, my friends, 
the English are coming.' The Doctor Giorgio Demetrio stayed, 
and that pretty girl of sixteen his daughter, and Herr Klein, the 
German tailor. He had resided twenty-five years in Khartoum. 
. . . You would like to know the story of our lives from day to 
day, but every day was like yesterday, and to-day like to-morrow. 
We were like dogs guarding sheep-folds from the wolf or the 
hyena ; but we were not down-hearted. Gordon kept saying to 
us : '• Patience, — the English are coming, — are coming. God 
watches over you !' He was a good man. 'My trust in God 
never fails,' he said, 'neither let yours.' In the morning the 
band would play to him early as he sat in his kiosque. He took 
his coffee there. He then walked up and down on the top of his 
house. After this many officials came to him, and others. After 
this Gordon Pasha took his lunch. After this business was re- 
sumed. At evening he would ride along the embankments to 
the White Nile. The enemy were always firing in a desultory 
way. We were always expecting from dawn to sunset the 
arrival of the English. Whenever we heard news of them our 
hearts rejoiced. The Arabs have a fear of the English, dating 
back to the time of Arabi's defeat. They believe that they carry 
with them a piece of wood that they can extend to any height, 
that up this they climb, and can spy their enemy at any distance.^ 
As time wore on and provisions were becoming scarce, because 
of the strictness of the siege, Gordon Pasha sent away all the 
women and old men out of Khartoum. They were afraid to go 
at first, but Gordon gave them a letter to the Mahdi Mohammed 
Ahmed, writing as follows : ' Be good to these, and treat them 
well, I charge thee. Behold I have kept and fed all these for 
four months ; try how thou wilt like doing it for one month.' 

1 Probably a confused notion of the heliograph. 



GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 93 

Mohammed Ahmed accepted them, and they are with him to 
this day. The Soudanese are a light-hearted people, even 
when a cloud hangs over them. As it was in the days of the 
Great Flood, and as it will be at the Last Day, so they bought 
and sold, married and were given in marriage. You would have 
thought nothing was going amiss. It is true that they all 
believed the English were coming." 

The Egyptian next tells us of the dervish dress that the 
Mahdi sent to Gordon. He continues : — 

" Gordon Pasha lived alone with his servant. Power Bey 
lived in the Church of the Roman Catholic Mission to guard 
the ammunition that was kept there. We strolled when off duty 
through the bazaar as usual. Som_e would gamble with domi- 
noes, and the young men would dress to please the young girls 
— with cane under arm, and cigarette in mouth. Bargains 
would be struck, and houses sold as if the end were not. I am 
told it has been so with great cities in time of siege. It was so, 
a Jew told me, with his city in Syria. Do not blame me when 
I tell of this, I am a different man. I have lost a wife — I had 
only one — and children. We went to the mosque too — crowds 
of us. Gordon always said the English were coming. I do not 
know that your coming would have altered matters, for this I 
tell you advisedly, the will of God determined it. There were 
traitors in our midst. The plan was to deliver over the city 
when the English drew near. At night the enemy would come 
within speaking distance and curse us for infidels, and we would 
reply and curse them. Thus did we call out to each other all 
the whole night. The English stayed too long upon their way ; 
perhaps had they come in the gates would not have been opened, 
but still I tell you treachery was planned long before. The 
rebels came over before dawn. Faragh and another opened the 
gate. All the white and all the black women in the town are 
now made slaves. My poor wife! I shall never see her again. 
When I say white I mean those whose fathers were Englishmen 
and their mothers Abyssinian women ; and there were some 
Turkish ladies, wives of officers. All are now slaves! " 

One cannot but wonder whether Gordon ever discovered 
in what light he was held by the Mahdi. There was, as I 
have said, a prophecy, dating from the time of Mahomet, 
that the true Mahdi should subdue the representative of 
Christianity, and then, after converting him to the true 
faith, should place him at his side, his equal in power 



94 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

and glory, and that they should reign together upon earth. 
This position, there is little room to doubt, the Mahdi be- 
lieved was reserved for Gordon. 

In spite of the untimely death of this representative of 
Christianity, his conquest in his stronghold was a great 
encouragement to the Mahdi's followers. 

Terrible was the disappointment and grief of the English 
army when a foot messenger reached it three days later at 
the wells of Gakdul, with news of what had taken place at 
Khartoum. But greater still was the shock to the detach- 
ment under Sir Charles Wilson, part of the force which had 
crossed the desert under Sir Herbert Stewart, and had 
fought the battles of Abu Klea and Gubat, losing in the 
former the gallant Colonel Burnaby so famous for his ride 
to Khiva some years before. At Gubat were lost many 
men and valuable officers, besides the correspondents of the 
" Daily News " and the " Standard." The " Times " corre- 
spondent, Mr. Power, had also perished with Colonel Stewart 
but a few days before. This news was received by Sir 
Charles Wilson immediately after the battle of Gubat, and 
made him more than ever desirous to hurry on. He reached 
the Nile, found there a steamer that had been warped over 
the cataracts, and was within forty-eight hours of Khartoum. 

The banks of the Nile, as the steamer approached the 
place, were lined with Arabs. An island near Khartoum 
was in their possession. As the little steamer approached 
the town there were no welcoming flags displayed. The 
place seemed crowded with people. They were Arabs 
gesticulating their triumph. It was no use for the relief 
to go further. It was too late. The city was lost. The 
Arabs had won. 

The same news determined Lord Wolseley to retreat. 
The object the English army came for could not now be 
accomplished. The hot season was coming on. The two 
thousand men who had started to cross the desert were now 
only fifteen hundred. They had lost one quarter of their 
privates, an immense number of officers, and nearly all 



GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 95 

their camels in a week. It would have been madness to 
embark in an uncertain campaign by pushing on. So Lord 
Wolseley returned to Dongola. 

In the middle of July Kassala surrendered, and subse- 
quently the garrison in Sennaar. The English government 
had at one time made arrangements for laying a railroad 
track from Suakim to Berber on the Nile, but the enter- 
prise was subsequently necessarily abandoned. They had 
also sent to the United States for machinery, and men to 
work it, for artesian wells. Troops came to Suakim from 
India, and even from Australia. The English government 
was encouraged by the death of Mohammed Ahmed in the 
summer of 1885, five months after the fall of Khartoum. 
When dying he named the Khalifa Abdullah his successor, 
and passed away into the number of those Mahdis who 
were but forerunners of the mighty Mahdi yet to come. 

But the English were quite mistaken if they deemed their 
troubles at an end. Osman Digna was more on the alert 
than ever. He fought the English inch by inch and day 
by day, and they could gain over him no permanent ad- 
vantage. Meantime Lord Wolseley' s men were dying fast 
from the climate, and a war cloud looked ominous on the 
Afghan frontier. It was decided to withdraw the English 
troops from the southern border of Egypt, but to retain 
Suakim with an English garrison. The general left in 
charge. Sir Gerald Graham, had no more land around 
Suakim than that commanded by his own guns. The 
Khalifa Abdullah, who has never definitely taken the title 
of Mahdi, though his followers consider him in that light, 
has had troubles of his own. The provinces over which 
he holds sway are now in utter wretchedness and anarchy; 
it may be safe to say that every man in them has abandoned 
agriculture and gone to war with his neighbor. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CAPTIVES OF THE MAHDI. 

EFORE we leave the subject of Egypt, which from time 
to time threatens Europe with serious compHcations, we 
must say a few words concerning the condition of that coun- 
try under the EngUsh occupation; and first of all, a few 
pages may be devoted to the fate of the European cap- 
tives made by the Mahdi, some of whom are still held at 
Omdurman in a state of slavery. 

In March, 1880, a party of Austrian Roman CathoHc mis- 
sionaries, headed by an Italian bishop, and comprising three 
missionary priests, Fathers Ohrwalder, Dichtl, and Primez- 
zoni, together with several Sisters of Charity, reached Khar- 
toum on their way to Delem, a station occupied by Egyptian 
troops with a view to the suppression of the slave-trade. 
Delem was situated on the verge of the province of Darfour, 
in a district containing, it was said, one hundred mountains, 
with rich valleys between them, inhabited by Nubas, a kindly, 
industrious, and cheerful negro people, who had made con- 
siderable progress in civilization. They were liable, however, 
even in 1880, to raids from a fierce Arab tribe, called the 
Baggaras, who at present, under Abdullah, the Mahdi's suc- 
cessor, may be said to rule the once Egyptian Soudan, and 
by 1892 had decimated the Nubas by war, sold numbers of 
them into slavery, and forced the remainder to take refuge 
in their mountain fastnesses. 

On reaching Khartoum the missionary party was welcomed 
in the principal parlor of the Mission Buildings by the lead- 
ing Catholics in the city, among them Gessi Pasha, Gordon's 

96 




THE MAHDI. 



THE CAPTIVES OF THE MA HDL 97 

lieutenant in the Bahr Gazal, now wearied with his con- 
tinual campaigns, and Slatin Bey, fresh from his province of 
Darfour. That evening the European colony dined together 
and were a cheerful party. " Little did we foresee," says 
Father Ohrwalder, " the terrible fate in store for nearly all 
of us." 

The missionaries found their life at Delem peaceful, pros- 
perous, and happy. The mission became a httle Christian 
colony, being increased from time to time by rescued slaves, 
who speedily became deeply attached to the Sisters and the 
Fathers ; while the Nubas and their chief were from the first 
their friends. 

Things went on thus for about two years ; then in Delem 
were perceptible the first mutterings of the storm that was to 
burst over the Soudan, bringing massacre and calamity over 
all the land and on the peaceful Christian mission. 

Like the great Sheikh of the Wahabees, the Mahdi pro- 
claimed himself a reformer, protesting against abuses that 
under the lax Turks had crept into Islamism. Like the 
sect of the Wahabees, the partisans of his reforms were Arabs, 
inspired with intense hatred to all Turks, whom they regarded 
as degenerate Mohammedans. The term " Turk " is applied 
in the Soudan to both Ottomans and Egyptians ; Greek to 
all classes of Europeans, with the exception of Englishmen. 

I have related the rise of the Mahdi in the preceding 
chapter. At Delem the news of him was at first very meagre, 
though there was much talk of his wonderful miracles ; the 
most important of which was said to be his power to change 
bullets into water when they were fired against his people. 
Soon malcontents, as well as fanatics, gathered round him, 
while to the slave -raiders, who owed their ruin to the new 
pohcy of the Egyptian government, — carried out in part by 
English agents, — Mohammed Ahmed appeared as a savior. 
These men were well armed, inured to war, and full of 
enthusiasm. Up to 1881, the Mahdi was simply called The 
Dervish ; after that time men believed in him as the true 
Mahdi. Several expeditions sent against him were defeated, 

H 



98 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

and one after another of the Khedive's military posts in 
Kordofan and Darfour fell into his hands. 

The Mahdi himself belonged to the Arab tribe of the 
Dengala, or natives of Dongola, who are noted in the Sou- 
dan as the most enterprising slave-dealers. His outward 
appearance was strangely fascinating. He was of strong 
constitution, and of dark complexion. When he smiled he 
showed white teeth, and between the two upper middle 
ones was a V-shaped space, which in the Soudan is con- 
sidered a sign that its owner will be fortunate. As a mes- 
senger of God he pretended to be in direct communication 
with the Deity, by means of visions. He called himself 
" The successor of the Prophet," and in all things endeav- 
ored to follow in the footsteps of his master. Under him it 
was intended to appoint four principal officers called khali- 
fas, but the place of the fourth one was never filled. The 
three appointed were the Khalifa Abdullah of the Baggara 
tribe ; the Khalifa Ali Wad Helu ; and Khalifa Sherif, a 
member of the Mahdi's own family and tribe. The Mahdi 
offered the position of fourth khalifa to the son of Sheikh 
Senoussi, the Mahdi of North Africa, but it was declined. 

The three khalifas were each in command of a coj'ps d'ar- 
mee, while the Mahdi himself held no military position. The 
officers under the khahfas were styled emirs. 

I have already told of the strict prohibition of strong 
drinks, tobacco, and hashish, the use of which is common 
among the Turks and the Egyptians. Women were forbid- 
den to wear gold or silver ornaments, and were never to be 
guilty of putting on false hair. The Mahdi predicted the re- 
turn of our Lord and Saviour during his own lifetime, and the 
conversion of all Christians, Jews, and idolaters to Islamism, 
while, as the end of the world was near, Mahdists were expec- 
ted to prepare for it by much prayer, fasting, and self-denial. 

The Mahdi and his followers, having taken possession of 
the large town of El Obeid, turned their attention to Delem, 
five days' journey to the southward. This expedition was con- 
fided to the Baggara. On September 2, 1882, the destruction 



THE CAPTIVES OF THE MAHDL 99 

of the mission took place ; the black Christians were made 
slaves, and the priests and the Sisters sent to El Obeid to 
be dealt with by the Mahdi. There were seven of them ; 
Father Bonomi, Father Ohrwalder, two lay brothers, and 
three sisters. In captivity three of these unhappy people 
remained ten years. Father Bonomi two years later made 
his escape ; some have been delivered by death, and the 
lay brothers are still in slavery. The Austrian consul at 
Khartoum, before it was besieged, contrived to send a letter 
to the Mahdi, offering any sum he would name for the ran- 
som of the members of the two Austrian missions, that of 
Delem and that of El Obeid. But the Mahdi replied that 
although it was true that the Prophet had sanctioned the 
ransom of captives, it was a custom he himself had changed. 
If the prisoners would not embrace Mahdism he would 
keep them with him till the appearing of Sayidna Isa (the 
master Jesus), when all men would become true believers. 

The annihilation of the army of Hicks Pasha wonderfully 
increased the prestige of the Mahdi. He became master of 
Kordofan. Then came his attack on Khartoum, the death 
of Gordon, and the retirement of the English army. The 
Soudan was left to the Soudanese ; that is, the Soudanese 
were left to be murdered, plundered, and oppressed by the 
Mahdi and the Arabs in his army. 

The European captives were treated as slaves, and made 
to work under various masters. After a time some Greeks 
obtained permission to protect the Sisters, after one of them, 
escaping from torture and confinement, had made her way to 
the tent of the Mahdi, and implored him for protection on 
her knees. The Mahdi pitied her when he saw her state, and 
having called to mind that the Koran enjoins respect and 
toleration of the ministers of Christ's religion, ordered the 
release of the Sisters from their masters. After this their 
chief sufferings were from poverty, small-pox, and famine, 
which they shared in common with all others in the Mahdi's 
capital. They endeavored to gain a scanty livehhood by 
needlework, while Father Ohrwalder wove ribbons, by the 



C 

^ 



100 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

sale of which he eked out their subsistence, and provided 
himself with the most absolute necessaries. 

Father Ohrwalder gives a circumstantial account of the 
treacherous murder of Colonel Stewart and the consuls 
Power and Hansal. They were enticed from an island 
on the Nile where they had taken refuge after the loss of 
their steamer, and chopped to pieces with axes in the tent of 
an Arab, from whom they had been led to expect hospitahty. 
His account of Gordon's death fully corroborates that given 
by the Egyptian officer. Gordon's head was sent to the 
Mahdi, and hung on a tree in the Mahdi's capital at Omdur- 
man, while wild dervishes danced around the tree, heaping 
curses upon Gordon. 

The tailor Klein, who had lived in Khartoum for twenty- 
five years, was murdered before the eyes of his wife and 
children; his eldest son was murdered with him. The 
mother, a Venetian lady of good family, fought like a 
tigress in defense of her younger children, who for a time 
were spared. The women in Khartoum were divided up 
between the Mahdi, the khalifas, and the emirs. The remnant 
were given over to their followers. 

Omdurman on the Nile, and not Khartoum, became the 
Mahdi's capital. Dongola, Darfour, and Kordofan were 
already his ; before long his generals had conquered Sen- 
naar, and his rule extended from an undefined frontier on 
the west to the Red Sea, from Bahr Gazal upon the 
Upper Nile to the frontier of Egypt. None of his followers 
doubted his divine mission after these successes ; even his 
uncle Seyid Abdul Kader, who up to that time -had doubted 
if he was the true Mahdi, held out no longer. 

But while success increased the adulation and worship of 
his followers to an extraordinary degree, a change came over 
the Mahdi himself after the fall of Khartoum. Although he 
was still urging upon his disciples to despise all the good 
things of this world, he surrounded himself with comforts 
and luxuries, appreciating to the utmost the very pleasures 
against which he had declaimed so vehemently. 



THE CAPTIVES OF THE MAHDI. 10 1 

" He urged moderation in eating and drinking, and yet 
he secured for himself every dainty that Khartoum could 
possibly furnish. He now wore shirts and trousers of the 
finest material, and in putting them on his wives were 
obliged to perfume him with costly fragrances. . . . The 
man who hitherto had had but a straw mat, now lay on a 
sumptuous bedstead, brought originally from Jedda, and cap- 
tured at Khartoum; and his floor was spread with Persian 
carpets, while still his fanatical followers honored him as the 
direct messenger of God, sent to purge the world from the 
self-indulgent practices of the hated Turks." 

It was believed that dust touched by the Mahdi's foot had 
healing properties, and where he passed every trace of his 
steps was gathered up and stored away. Not a drop of the 
water in which he bathed was allowed to be wasted, and 
men and women threw themselves down frantically on the 
spots his feet had touched, and struggled with each other 
for the precious possession. 

But early in Ramadan of the year 1885, the Mahdi was 
taken dangerously ill, and on the 2 2d of June, not five 
months after the fall of Khartoum, he died, probably from 
fatty degeneration of the heart. 

The shock of his death was terrible to his followers. 
" Wild fanatics, so to speak, were struck dumb ; their eyes 
were suddenly opened, and their very confusion showed that 
they had suddenly realized the falseness of his pretensions." 

No one in Omdurman believed that the Mahdi's party 
would continue to bear sway in his name. But he had 
appointed the first of his khalifas, the energetic Abdullah, 
as his successor. This man never took the title of Mahdi ; he 
called himself the khalifa of the Mahdi, but he had much 
difficulty in establishing his authority, and has been able 
to maintain it only by great severity. The other two 
khalifas, Khalifa Ali Wad Helu and Khalifa Sherif, were 
unwilling to submit to his domination, and for some time 
there were threats of civil war. The Mahdi's family were 
especially opposed to Abdullah, and he treated his prede- 



I02 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

cesser's wives and women very badly. Under him all power is 
now exercised by his own tribe, the Baggara. In the summer 
of 1885 Sennaar, the last military post of the Egyptians, fell. 
An Italian who was its governor was taken prisoner, but a 
telegram from Cairo has recently announced his escape. 

We heard much in the early days of the Mahdi of the 
Frenchman Olivier Pain, once a member of the Council 
of the Commune, who was supposed to assist Mohammed 
Ahmed with advice, and to plan his military operations. 
But whatever Pain may have been guilty of in France, the 
poor fellow never had any chance of directing the Mahdi's 
councils. Here is his history, abridged from what is told 
to us by Father Ohrwalder : — 

"On August 15, 1884, a great surprise fell upon El 
Obeid. Quite unexpectedly, at two o'clock in the after- 
noon, a European and three Arabs, mounted on good 
camels, entered the city, and rode boldly into the court- 
yard of the governor's house. The European dismounted 
and approached a large crowd of dervishes. He was tall, 
and gave them the impression of being a powerful, ener- 
getic man. He had a fair beard and was very sunburnt. 
Instantly all sorts of wild rumors were flying about concern- 
ing him. Some said he was the King of France, others 
that he was one of the principal ministers of that nation. 
As he was unable to speak Arabic, Father Bonomi was 
summoned as interpreter. 

"The stranger informed Bonomi that he had marched 
from Dongola to El Obeid in thirteen days; that he had 
escaped from Dongola, as the English had endeavored to 
thwart him in his projects ; that his name was Olivier Pain, 
and that he had been the bearer of letters from Zebdhr Pasha 
to the Mahdi ; but that fear of the EngHsh had induced him 
to destroy them. He said that he came in the name of 
France to place his nation's submission in the Mahdi's 
hands, and that he was prepared to assist the Mahdi by 
advice, and if necessary with deeds. 

" The dervishes, however, did not believe him ; they 



THE CAPTIVES OF THE MAHDI. 103 

entirely distrusted Europeans, and concluded that Pain 
was a spy sent by England to take stock of the situation. 
They therefore searched him, took from him his money, 
letters, papers, and maps ; a few books of travels relating 
to the Soudan, an Arabic dictionary, a copy of the Koran 
in French, and put him under very strict guard ; the other 
Europeans were not permitted to see him. Pain com- 
plained of the food they offered him, but was told that the 
true adherents of the Mahdi were dead to the things of 
this world. When asked repeatedly by the dervishes why 
he should have come into their country, he always answered 
that, *The whole of the European nations, more especially 
France (with the one exception of England), entirely sym- 
pathized with the Mahdi.' After being kept a little while in 
confinement, he was forwarded to the Mahdi. On his way he 
reached a small town where he found one of the lay brothers 
of the Roman Catholic Mission. To him he confessed 
that he was the correspondent of a newspaper, and that he 
came to the country to see the Mahdi and his empire, 
about which he intended to write full accounts to his paper. 
The brother endeavored to represent to him the difficulties 
of the undertaking, but Pain answered that he was full of en- 
ergy, and that if he succeeded he would reap a great reward. 
The Mahdi received him very coolly. Pain had imagined 
that the immense services that he would be able to render 
the Mahdi would cause the latter to receive him with open 
arms, — but the poor man was sadly deluded. By this 
time he was broken down by dysentery, caused by fatigue, 
bad water and poor food. Still under strict guard, he was 
compelled to follow the Mahdi. On the way he declared 
that he could go no further, and begged for medicine. The 
remedy in the Soudan in such cases is a draught of melted 
butter. After Pain had drunk a little, he was placed on a 
camel, but it had only gone a few steps when he fell off in 
a fainting fit. As he lay unconscious on the ground, and 
was deathly pale, his guards believed he must be dead ; so 
they dug a rough grave in which poor Pain was laid, cov- 



104 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

ered him over with sand, and then hurried on. It is quite 
possible the unfortunate man was not dead. This took 
place November 15, 1884, about two months before Khar- 
toum fell." 

In September of the same year Lupton Bey, governor 
of the Bahr Gazal, arrived at El Obeid as a prisoner; 
but at first he was far better treated than the rest. After 
Hicks had been defeated, a large force of Mahdists, con- 
ducted by two brothers who were slave-dealers, made their 
way to the lands of the White Nile. Lupton refused to sur- 
render to them and was anxious to fight, but his own men 
declared for the Mahdi, and he had no alternative but to 
surrender himself a prisoner. As long as he had money, he 
was very kind to his companions in captivity, but falling under 
suspicion of trying to escape, he was stripped of everything 
and confined ten months in chains, treatment which broke 
down his health entirely. After his release from chains he 
was carried to Omdurman, where he proposed to adopt 
soap-boiling for a living, and was about to associate with 
himself Father Ohrwalder, when ordered by the authorities 
to assist a certain Hassan Zeki in the manufacture of gun- 
powder. His need was very great, and he accepted the 
employment, but disease had so weakened him that he died 
a few days after. Slatin Bey, ex-governor of Darfour, was 
also at Omdurman a prisoner. 

The first member of the Austrian Roman Catholic mis- 
sion to effect an escape was Father Bonomi. Monsignor 
Sogaro, at Cairo, had made repeated attempts to send 
money to the captives, and to lay plans for their rescue, 
but as it was death to carry a letter to them, nothing had 
reached them, and sometimes they believed themselves 
friendless and forgotten. 

On June 4, 1885, a few days before the Mahdi's death, 
a Copt handed Father Bonomi a note, saying that he was 
charged to take him back to Dongola, and would meet him 
casually in the market the next day. The note, when read 
by the two priests in secret, was as follows : — 



THE CAPTIVES OF THE MAHDL 105 

" Dear Friend : I am sending this man that you may escape 
with him. Trust him — he is honest. Monsignor Sogaro awaits 
you in Cairo with outstretched arms. 

Your fellow countryman, 

Alois Sartoni." 

Here was a chance for Bonomi, but his poor fellow captive 
felt himself forgotten and forlorn. The truth was that a false 
rumor had reached Cairo that Father Ohrwalder had died of 
ill-treatment and disease. The messenger refused to take 
charge of another man, having received orders only for one. 
Almost heart-broken, Ohrwalder accompanied his brother 
priest through the mirk midnight to within a short distance 
of the place where he had engaged to meet his deliverer, 
and then turned back into a captivity lonelier and more 
dreary than ever. 

Father Bonomi arrived safe in Dongola, and Mr. Sartoni 
was rewarded by His Holiness Pope Leo XHI. with the order 
of Gregory the Great, in recognition of the humane service 
he had rendered. 

Eight years more of misery and slavery lay before the 
solitary priest and the three Sisters of Charity. One of the 
latter died in October, 1891, and the others envied her as they 
stood round her grave upon a sand-hill, with all the Greeks 
and Syrians in Omdurman. 

Two weeks later help unexpectedly came. Monsignor 
Sogaro had found a man who, with two other Arabs, was 
willing to undertake the dangerous enterprise, and faithfully, 
intelligently, and energetically they performed it. 

The commission was for Father Ohrwalder, and two sis- 
ters, but one of the sisters of the Delem Mission being dead, 
another from the El Obeid Mission was substituted for her. 
They also took with them a little black girl, Adila, who had 
been born at Delem, in the Mission House. 

Ahmed, their guide, had received ;^ioo to purchase 
camels ; and to get them and conceal them was a very diffi- 
cult task. To no one could they confide their prospect of 
escape for fear of compromising him. They ascertained, 



I06 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

however, to their great satisfaction, that the government had 
no riding camels in its beit el mal, or depot of suppUes, so 
pursuit could not be very immediate. 

It was a month before all their preparations were con- 
cluded, then in the darkness they stole out of the town. 
The camels were excellent animals, and had been well fed 
for two weeks ; there was one for each sister, and her driver, 
Ahmed had one to himself, and little Adila was mounted 
behind Father Ohrwalder on another. The details of the 
journey are dwelt on minutely in his narrative ; it must suffice 
us to say that they went onward at an almost incredible 
pace day and night, through thorny brakes which tore their 
clothes, and inflicted painful wounds upon their persons ; 
over deserts, over rocks, up mountains, and in the stony 
beds of rivers. They covered the entire distance between 
Omdurman and Murat, where at last they were in safety, five 
hundred miles, in seven days. In the first three days and a 
half they allowed themselves only four^ hours' sleep. For 
many hours before reaching safety the one absorbing thought 
was : " We shall sleep," and on entering the commandant's 
house at Murat all dropped, worn out, upon the floor, but 
then to their amazement sleep would not come. They had 
left Omdurman November 29, 1891 ; they reached Murat 
December 8, and Cairo on the 21st of December. They 
had had nothing to sustain life but dates, and a few biscuit. 
They were worn out and emaciated. 

"The staying power of our camels," says Father Ohr- 
walder, " astonished me. How easily one of them might 
have stumbled and broken its leg, as we trotted hard 
through the dark nights, unable to see where we were 
going ! But Ahmed and his companions had used all 
their knowledge in securing thoroughly good animals : our 
excellent guides had been ever ready to help and assist us ; 
full of energy and pluck, they had carried out their enter- 
prise with the utmost sagacity and integrity. Poor Ahmed 
had dwindled down almost to a skeleton, and when he dis- 
mounted at Murat was overcome by a fit of dizziness, from 
which he did not recover for an hour." 




FATHER OHRWALDEK. 



THE CAPTIVES OF THE MAHDI. 10/ 

As soon as their escape was discovered at Omdurman, 
the khaUfa ordered they should be brought back, even if 
buried in the earth. Happily the pursuers started on a 
false trail. .No one was put to death for their escape, but 
other prisoners were put in chains, and had much to suffer. 

When Father Ohrwalder reached Cairo, Major Wingate, 
R. A., director of military inteUigence in the Egyptian 
army, made him draw up the narrative of his captivity, 
which he rewrote into English in its present form. In 
England the book in a few months went through five edi- 
tions, but it has never been reprinted in this country ; and 
possibly, hke all books full of strange names, hard to pro- 
nounce, and impossible to remember, it may not be calcu- 
lated readily to attract the general reader. 

There have since been other escapes from Omdurman, 
notably those of Father Rossignoh, another priest of the 
Austrian Mission, and Slatin Bey, the last of Gordon's 
lieutenants, ex-governor-general of Darfour. Slatin Bey 
(now Slatin Pasha) reached Cairo March, 1895, having 
been one month, all but one day, on his way from captivity 
to freedom. He is an Austrian by birth, and his age is 
now about forty. His family holds a good social position, 
and his brother is in the employ of the Austrian govern- 
ment. When a very young man, at Cairo, he attracted the 
attention of General Gordon, who took him with him when 
he first went to the Soudan. In 1876 he, however, re- 
turned home, and served his country as a volunteer in the 
campaign against the Turks in Herzegovina. 

The war over, he went back to the Soudan, where Gordon 
made him first inspector-general of East Soudan and Sen- 
naar, and afterwards a sub-governor of the same district. 
In 1882, Rauf Pasha nominated him governor-general of 
Darfour. That province had, however, already gone over 
in great part to the Mahdi. In vain Slatin Bey was con- 
tinually fighting against the dervishes, now in the north, 
and now in the south ; but, though constantly victorious, 
he could never subdue them. He had, he told Father 



I08 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

Ohrwalder, since his arrival in Darfour, fought twenty- 
seven battles. On one occasion he was struck by a bullet, 
which shattered one of his fingers ; but, " undismayed, he 
seized the hanging remnant with his other hand, and ordered 
the man next him to cut it off with his knife, after which 
he joined again in the fight, and cheered his men on to 
victory." After the defeat of Hicks Pasha, Slatin Bey was 
forced to yield : his ammunition was all gone, and his men 
were refusing to stand by him. He sent in a letter to the 
Mahdi, saying he would surrender. At the same time he 
wrote to Gordon : " Officers and men demanded a capitu- 
lation, and I, standing here alone and a European, was 
obliged to capitulate. Does your Excellency beUeve that 
to me, an Austrian officer, the surrender was easy? It was 
the hardest day of my fife." The Mahdi at first was dis- 
posed to treat him as he did Lupton, with more considera- 
tion than a common prisoner; but a treacherous native, 
having handed to him a letter written by Lord Wolseley 
to Slatin, his treatment of the latter became very severe, 
and he was kept in chains ten months. 

On the Mahdi's death the Khahfa Abdullah made him 
one of his bodyguard and kept him always under his own 
eye. Nine times had Major Wingate endeavored to open 
for him a chance of escape. The tenth time he succeeded. 

Last February, as Slatin Bey, in attendance on his master, 
was at prayers in the mosque, a man knelt down beside 
him, and in a few words told him he was in Omdurman to 
effect his escape, and gave him directions. That night, Sla- 
tin, wrapping his head well up, stole away to the appointed 
place, where he found two camels and two Arabs. As soon 
as they were clear of Omdurman they started at full speed, 
making one hundred and twenty miles in twenty-four hours. 
This pace exhausted the camels, who were then turned loose, 
and Slatin Bey hid in the mountains, while his guides went 
off to procure fresh camels. Pursuit was very hot, and 
capture repeatedly seemed imminent. They swam the Nile 
to conceal their track and floated the camels over on blad- 



THE CAPTIVES OF THE MAHDI. 109 

ders made of water-skins. At last Slatin, under the guid- 
ance of a very old man, reached the Nubian desert. In this 
he wandered for twelve days, when he reached a railway 
station at Assouan, and at once started for Cairo, exchang- 
ing his dress as a member of the khalifa's bodyguard for a 
rough jacket and trousers and a pair of tennis shoes, the 
only European garments he could procure at that outpost 
of civilization. He looked in good health, in spite of his 
terrible experiences both during his captivity of twelve 
years and during his adventurous journey. He left behind 
him a letter to the khalifa, saying that the desire to see his 
friends in Europe had induced him once more to pay them 
a visit, and praying the khahfa not to punish other Euro- 
peans in Omdurman, as none of them had known anything 
of his intention to escape. It is to be feared, however, that 
this letter may have been of no avail, as after the departure of 
Father Rossignoli, a lay brother named Ragnotto had been 
thrown into chains, and at the time of Siatin's escape was still 
a prisoner. 

At the depot at Cairo, Slatin Bey was met by the Aus- 
trian consul-general. Major Wingate, Father Rossignoli, and 
others. Father Ohrwalder's information had been invalu- 
able to the Austrian consul-general and Major Wingate in 
making plans for the ex-governor's escape, which however 
might possibly not have been so successfully carried out had 
it not been for the excitement among the dervishes at the 
very recent news of the capture of Kassala by the Italians. 

"The Mahdi's notions of scientific warfare," says the 
" London Graphic," " are no doubt of the vaguest, but even 
the most untutored Arab must appreciate the strategical 
value of Kassala as the thin edge of the dreaded wedge of 
foreign intrusion into the Soudan." 

There has been rarely a more tangled skein in history 
than that which relates at present to Egyptian affairs. 
They are tangled by international poKtics, which are af- 
fected by tangles in English party poHtics ; they are tangled 
by ancient arrangements with the Sultan as suzerain and 



1 10 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

Caliph, pretensions which cannot be wholly set aside ; by 
indiscreet utterances as to the duration of the English occu- 
pation made by a prime minister who by temperament 
has always believed firmly that what he wills must inevit- 
ably turn out according to his wishes ; and, lastly, they are 
tangled by the anomalous position of the young Khedive, 
besides the now acknowledged mistake that England 
made in 1884, when she recklessly forced Egypt to aban- 
don control over the valley of the White Nile. They are 
further tangled by the quarrels, jealousies, and back-bitings of 
the mixed multitude in Egypt, but above all by the Levantines, 
who call themselves Christians, and whose greed has brought 
the name of Christian into such disgrace that it has become 
a synonym in Egypt for everything un-Christian. While 
more entangling than all is the sentimental chauvinism of 
the French, the whole nation desiring almost as much to 
supplant English influence and authority in Egypt, as that 
of Germany in Alsace and Lorraine. 

Time must untie these various knots in the Egyptian 
situation. Meantime Enghsh administration seems to be 
very patiently endeavoring to loosen most of them, and in 
most cases with extraordinary success. In 1885 there were 
three things that men of experience pronounced were im- 
possible in Egypt: i, to make it solvent; 2, to collect the 
taxes without the free use of the whip ; and, 3, the execu- 
tion of public works without forced labor. Yet by 1895 all 
these things have been done. A recent Enghsh writer in 
the " Fortnightly Review " has said : — 

"It is a fact that should not be forgotten that the first three 
years of our intervention in Egypt did more harm than good 
to the country; and the harm would never have happened if 
the government of the day had had the courage to act upon the 
advice and opinions of those who had had experience in the 
country, and knew the state of affairs. Had the most ordinary 
precautions been taken, Alexandria would never have been burnt 
down, and the probabilities are there would have been no Egyp- 
tian war, no Tel el Kebir, no massacres of Egyptian troops, 
and no loss of the Soudanese provinces. It is undoubted that 



THE CAPTIVES OF THE MAHDL m 

three years after the British intervention Egypt was in a worse 
condition than before our intervention. Alexandria had been 
burnt ; the armies of Hicks Pasha and Baker Pasha had been 
annihilated ; the garrisons of Tokar, Sinkat, Sennaar, Kassala, 
Berber, and Dongola had been massacred ; Lord Wolseley^'s 
expedition to Khartoum had failed ; Gordon had been sacrificed ; 
and the whole of the Soudanese provinces, with a population 
supposed to number eleven millions of souls, had been lost to 
Egypt. The Egyptians might well ask to be saved from their 
friends, for it is absolutely true that all these disasters arose from 
preventable causes, and might have been prevented, or at least 
enormously mitigated, had it not been for the almost unaccount- 
able and apparently infatuated conduct of the government. To 
foreigners their conduct was unaccountable, but no doubt the 
causes were, first, their sincere disinclination to intervene at all, 
and then the divided state of opinion among their supporters ; 
some being for intervention, some against it, and the result was 
an attempt to please both sides, ending in a policy of change, 
hesitancy, and uncertainty." 

The rule of the English began in 1882, during the min- 
istry of Mr. Gladstone, which came into power in 1880, as 
a protest against the jingoism of Lord Beaconsfield, and 
with a sincere determination to interfere as little as pos- 
sible in foreign or colonial affairs. " No government was 
more unwilling to intervene in foreign affairs in any way 
than that of Mr. Gladstone ; and they would not have 
intervened at all in Egypt had not events been too strong 
for them." The opinion of England was shown by the fall 
in Egyptian stock, which went down to 45. 

" Now all is changed. The finances of the country are 
in as sound a condition as those of any of the states of 
Europe. On all sides are to be seen signs of prosperity and 
content. The army has been reorganized, and disloyalty 
in its ranks is unknown ; trade and commerce are flourish- 
ing; vast reforms, affecting the well-being of the whole 
population, have been carried out; Alexandria has been 
rebuilt in so magnificent a style that its people begin to 
think that its needless burning was not an unmitigated evil ; 
great material improvements with regard to irrigation have 
been made throughout the country; the new Khedive, 



112 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

young Abbas, has succeeded to his throne as quietly as the 
heir of any old-fashioned monarchy; and the opinion of 
Europe may be grasped by the fact that Egyptian stock is 
now at par." 

Four Englishmen of note were employed by Mr. Glad- 
stone's ministry to extricate Egypt from the condition of 
anarchy into which she had been plunged by Ismail's exile 
and Arabi's rebelhon, — Lord Dufferin, Lord Northbrook, 
General Gordon, and Sir Evelyn Baring. From 1883 to 
1885 the first three failed wholly in their mission. The 
fourth, during the same period, effected nothing. But 
since 1885, when he has been left untrammelled to pursue 
his own course in the government of Egypt, it has been 
another thing. To his administration the marvellous re- 
covery of a country, not only dead, but apparently given 
over to corruption, is due. 

When, in 1885, the home government in England ceased 
to be swayed by party motives in the internal administra- 
tion of Egypt, and left it to the sagacity and experience of 
Sir Evelyn Baring, disasters have ceased. 

In 1882 the finances of Egypt threatened absolute bank- 
ruptcy, notwithstanding the dual control of France and 
England, to which they had been committed. Ten years 
later, there was a surplus revenue of ^6,000,000, in spite of 
very large extra expenditure upon useful objects. This 
result has not been produced by an increase in taxation, 
or by an undue decrease in expenditure, but by attention 
to proper economy, reforms in the collection and distribu- 
tion of taxes, and by attention to productive public works. 

Irrigation is the thing most necessary to Egypt, and 
fifty millions of dollars was in 1884 added to the public 
debt for that purpose, in spite of the depressed condition 
of the finances. The system of damming the Nile at 
various points with locks and weirs, to store water for pur- 
poses of irrigation, and to distribute it by means of canals 
to fertilize whole districts, and subsequently to drain lands 
left by the Nile too deep in mud to be passable for two 



THE CAPTIVES OF THE MA HDL 1 13 

months out of every twelve, have been the objects of the 
irrigation department in Egypt. 

A system of what is called barrage, and about which 
much at the present time is being written, was first con- 
templated by Mehemet i\.li, who, as we have seen, con- 
ceived the idea of using the massive stones of the Great 
Pyramid in a work of such utility. It was planned by the 
French engineer, Linant, and carried on under Said and 
Ismail Pashas by another French engineer, Mougil Bey, 
who worked under great difficulties. About twelve miles 
north of Cairo the Nile divides into two branches, one 
emptying into the sea at Rosetta, the other at Damietta. 
Two immense bridges have been built over these branches, 
with gates beneath their arches, to be opened or closed, 
either to dam up the water of the river, or to give it an 
outlet to the sea. From time immemorial, Egypt has had 
canals through large districts to distribute the precious 
water ; but the canals yearly get choked with mud. Up 
to the time of the English occupation, this mud was yearly 
removed by unpaid labor, the fellaheen lifting it in baskets, 
passing it to women on the bank above them, and they to 
children, who emptied away what remained of it on the 
ground. As Said Pasha said to Mr. Senior, this process 
might be considered an apt illustration of how the taxes of 
Egypt got frittered away in their passage through various 
hands to the treasury. Now, however, steam-engines re- 
lieve the population of this labor. A similar system is 
now in operation at Chicago, where, for sanitary purposes, 
a drain, or small canal, is being dug to reach the lUinois 
River, and where " it is a wonderful sight to see the steam 
shovels (about fifty of them are in sight at a time) scooping 
out a big cartload of dirt at every scoop, and working 
about as fast as a man with a hand shovel would do." 

The barrage is now complete, though, its foundation 
being on sand, it yearly needs close watching. It raises 
the Nile water thirteen feet. "The three trunk canals are 
all supplied with locks one hundred and sixty feet by 



1 14 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

twenty-eight feet, and adapted for navigation. The whole 
cost of these works was about ^4,000,000, but the annual 
increase of the cotton crop, in consequence of their com- 
pletion, is valued at fifteen millions; which," adds the 
chief of the irrigation department, with honest pride, " has 
not been a bad investment for Egypt." The attention of 
this department has been lately turned to a vast project 
which would fertilize millions of acres of Egyptian terri- 
tory, but the first announcement of the plan was received 
with a howl of indignation throughout Christendom. It 
was to have been a work worthy of the constructors of the 
Pyramids. The Nile was to have been barred where it 
forms its first cataract, just south of Assouan. The great 
dam was to be a wall one hundred and fifteen feet in height, 
and a mile and a quarter long, pierced by sluices large 
enough to allow the whole Nile at highest flood to rush 
through. The work was to be eighty-two feet thick at base, 
built of squared granite blocks, and the lake formed by 
holding up the water would have been one hundred and 
twenty miles long. The Egyptians showed no objection to 
it; money could have been found for it; but at the bottom 
of the lake the Island of Philse, with all its marvellous 
monuments, would have lain drowned. The monuments 
are not of the remotest antiquity, being only of the times 
of the Ptolemies, two hundred and fifty years before the 
Christian era, but the fame of them is so great that to 
destroy them, even to give material prosperity to a million 
Egyptians, seemed an act of vandalism, second only to 
Mehemet All's idea of utilizing the masonry of the Great 
Pyramid. The plan has been reduced from its original 
proportions. The granite wall is to be eighty feet, not one 
hundred and fifteen feet high, and the Island of Philse will 
stand henceforth in a lake, but will never be drowned. 
Reduced as the scheme will be, it will still be of great 
benefit to the country, though had Ptolemy only erected 
his works elsewhere, the now desert lands of Upper Egypt 
would have had just such a splendid supply of water as 



THE CAPTIVES OF THE MAHDI. II5 

Lower Egypt, and the country would have been able to 
expand and flourish to an extent it cannot do now. 

The sources of the Nile, a mystery only discovered during 
the present generation, are a number of mountain streams 
which flow into the Victoria Nyanza, and issue from it a 
magnificent river, tumbling over the Ripon Falls; two 
hundred and seventy miles further it dashes over Murchison 
Falls, a still more magnificent cataract, passes through the 
upper end of the Albert Nyanza, and, through six hundred 
miles of swampy country, reaches the point where it is 
joined by the Bahr Gazal. Thence it meets the ex- 
traordinary obstruction of islands of floating vegetation, 
which in 1861 detained Sir Samuel Baker fourteen months 
before he could cut his way to Gondokoro. Beyond this 
the Nile is joined by an affluent, which, like the Arne in 
Switzerland, is a river of white water. It takes its color 
from this affluent, and is then called the White Nile. Six 
hundred miles further, at Khartoum, the Blue Nile, flowing 
down from Abyssinian snow mountains, joins it, and two 
hundred miles further north it receives its last tributary, 
the Atbara, now rather a torrent than a river, for the utili- 
zation of which the irrigation department has already laid 
its plans. From thence it flows lonely sixteen hundred 
and eighty miles, to the Mediterranean. Sir Colin Scott- 
Moncrieff, head of the department of irrigation, from 
whose lecture before the Royal Institution in this year 
(1895) these facts are taken, tells us: — 

"Standing on the bridge at Cairo I used to reflect that 
I was just halfway between the source of the Nile and the 
White Sea!" 

All Europeans capable of any political outlook seem 
now to agree that the peremptory way in which England 
in 1884 forced Egypt, against the remonstrances (and even 
resignation) of her prime minister, Sherif Pasha, to aban- 
don all the provinces of the Soudan, was a great mistake, 
and as events seem now tending she may pay dearly for her 
blunder. Sir Samuel Baker vehemently urged at the time 



1 1 6 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

that if Kordofan, Darfour, and Dongola, the western 
provinces of the Soudan, must be given up to the Mahdi, 
and to anarchy, it was still possible to retain the Province 
of Sennaar, and others east of the White Nile, with that 
river for a frontier, provided England would relieve and 
hold Khartoum. Ismail Pasha had kept the Mahdi quiet 
by a subsidy; an ill-judged economy cut off this subsidy, 
and we know the result. To have retained the Soudan in 
1883, and to recover it in 1895, are different things. All 
men experienced in Egyptian affairs agree that reconquest 
could not now be attempted, but the anarchy that prevails 
in the Soudan, under the rule of the khalifa and his Arab 
tribe, may result in opening some chance of recovering 
those fertile provinces, over which Baker and Gordon, 
Emin, and Gessi, and Lupton, once ruled. These prov- 
inces have by no means submitted to the rule of the khalifa 
(he has never had more than a few outposts on the shores of 
the White Nile), and they would connect Egypt, under her 
present rulers, with the great lakes, and the region occupied 
by the East African Company. To have France step in, 
under the plea that Equatoria is derelict, and acquire rights 
in the Bahr Gazal country, would be a crime in politics. 
And yet, at present, by the precipitate abandonment of the 
Soudan, England has lost for Egypt both the Nile and the 
line of communication with the chain of great lakes which 
runs parallel with the coast through the interior of Eastern 
Africa. 

The Soudan is separated from Upper Egypt by the 
deserts of Nubia, but new plans are to fertilize them, and 
to make the Nile available at all seasons for the navigation 
of steamers. A few years hence such a march as Lord 
Wolseley made to reach Gordon will be a thing of the 
past. Had the English government, in 1884, listened to 
the advice of Nubar Pasha, and requested from the Sultan 
a force of ten thousand Turks and Arnauts for a few years, 
these men might have held Khartoum, and preserved the 
provinces from which it drew its supplies. Hicks Pasha 



THE CAPTIVES OF THE MAHDI. 1 1 / 

succeeded in his military operations east of the Nile, being 
strictly charged by Valentine Baker Pasha, then commander 
in chief of the Egyptian army, on no account to cross to 
the left bank of the river; but when Baker Pasha was no 
longer commander in chief, and Hicks Pasha was ordered 
to march his army of fellaheen into Kordofan, the timid, 
half-disciplined creatures could not resist for a moment the 
first charge of the Arabs, the only foe dreaded by English 
soldiers, the only warriors who can break a British square. 

In the words of Sir Evelyn Baring (now Lord Cromer), 
in a recent report to his government, — 

" The Soudan, so far at least as Khartoum, ought to be, 
and I trust eventually will be, reoccupied by Egyptian 
troops; but should that event ever take place a certain very 
limited amount of European assistance will be indispensable 
to avoid a recurrence to the abuses of the past." 

We read Lord Cromer's sense of the anomalous position 
England occupies in Egypt in the cautious wording of these 
few lines. 

We have seen something of the present condition of the 
abandoned Soudan through the glimpses let into its interior 
by Father Ohrwalder, who is of opinion that three-fifths of 
the population of the khahfa's Soudan have been destroyed 
since 1882, by war, famine, and disease. The "Fortnightly 
Review " says : — 

" The serious question for responsible people now to ask 
themselves is: Whether the beneficial improvement that 
has taken place in the Khedive's Egypt is to continue, or 
whether it is to be checked, and probably entirely destroyed ? 
One thing is certain, that unless there is some European 
control, all the advantages that have been gained since 1885 
would vanish. Were Egypt left to herself, if that were pos- 
sible, or were it again to pass under the control of Turkish 
pashas, all old methods and old abuses would be revived. 
... In fact, after ten years of prosperity and just govern- 
ment, it is probable that were European control withdrawn 
there would be such a rebound that the last state of that 



Il8 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

land would be worse than the first. Even the great works 
that have been commenced would almost certainly be neg- 
lected, and by inattention and carelessness go to ruin." 

Here are a few instances of what the feehng of the fella- 
heen is in Egypt towards their EngUsh rulers (in Egypt 
change of government for centuries has only been from one 
set of foreign rulers to another) . The extracts are taken from 
a recent article in " Blackwood's Magazine," presumably by 
Sir Archibald AUson, at one time governor of Alexandria. 
They prove that the down-trodden Egyptian natives are not 
altogether insensible to the benefits they have received from 
their present rulers. 

" When the first experiment was made with the abolition of 
the corvSe, or forced labor system, an English officer was riding 
down a canal, and, feeling tired and hungry, he was glad to 
accept the invitation of two peasants who were sitting under a 
tree, eating biscuits and curds. He dismounted, and on sitting 
down by them, was asked his occupation. As soon as they 
learned he was in the irrigation service, they exclaimed, " Oh, it 
is you who have enabled us to stay in our fields sowing cotton, 
instead of paddling in canal mud!" — and they ran off and 
returned with an extraordinary quantity of biscuits and curds. 
In 1887 a canal was constructed which took water to a strip of 
land which had previously been desert. When the first supply 
of water came down, there was general rejoicing ; and in the 
thanksgiving service at the mosque, the name of the irrigation 
officer, though he was a Christian, was mentioned next after 
that of H. H. the Khedive. Again, in Upper Egypt, during the 
drought in 1888 (which led to terrible scenes of famine in the 
Soudan), the Egyptian minister of public works went up to see 
what could be done, and took an English officer with him. 
They succeeded in making an enormous dam, and turning a 
river, by which means fifty thousand acres were irrigated and 
saved from drought. When they landed after their return they 
were led to the principal mosque, accompanied by as many men 
as the mosque would hold. The minister of public works had 
the place of honor on the right of the officiating priest, while the 
Englishman stood on his left, and the mosque was crowded from 
end to end, for the town was a place of 16,000 inhabitants. In 
the thanksgiving service the priest did not hesitate to mention 
the name of the Englishman, though he was a Christian." 



THE CAPTIVES OF THE MAHDI. II9 

To sustain the reforms inaugurated, a European protec- 
torate seems indispensable, for more than " a few years to 
come." What country shall exercise that protectorate? If 
England relinquish it, shall it be Turkey with its old system 
of pashas, and shall the civilized world be perpetually invoked 
to protect Christians against the pashas' ignorance, cupidity, 
intolerance, and cruelty? Shall there be a dual government 
in Egypt? That system was tried before 1882, with little 
success, and abandoned when the French fleet steamed out 
of the port of Alexandria, washing the hands of its govern- 
ment, as it were, of the affairs of Egypt, and throwing all 
responsibility on Englishmen ; and again, too, when France 
was requested to accept what is called the Drummond-Wolff 
convention. Shall England be superseded by France in the 
government of Egypt? France is the only power in any 
way jealous of English influence there. She has already a 
large portion of the African seaboard washed by the waters 
of the Mediterranean. It is mere chauvinism and jealousy 
of England that makes her covet Egypt. She has no claim 
to supreme influence there, except the sentimental one that 
Napoleon Bonaparte and the French army held it for four 
years, and then abandoned it to be the prey of rival factions. 
What win come of all this jealousy and rivalry? Perhaps 
only an illustration of the homely proverb that " Brag is a 
good dog, but Holdfast is a better." 

The Khedive Tewfik Pasha died when the world was little 
expecting his death, on January 7, 1892. He was a man in 
the prime of life, and apparently of a strong constitution. His 
age was thirty-nine. His father Ismail and his family had 
always despised the mother of Tewfik, though by Mussul- 
man custom she became her master's wife when she had 
borne him an eldest son. Tewfik himself was no favorite 
with his father, although for reasons already stated he 
secured for him the hereditary succession to the Egyptian 
throne. Tewfik, for two years after his accession, met in 
his "troubled Egypt" a succession of misfortunes; then he 
and his country passed under the protection of England, 



120 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

and met misfortunes for three years more. After that 
things changed, as we have seen, and prosperity such as 
Egypt had not known since the days of the Ptolemies began 
to dawn upon her people. Tewfik may possibly not have 
liked English tutelage, but it was inevitable. He acknowl- 
edged its necessity, he appreciated its uses, and he sub- 
mitted loyally. " He was an honorable gentleman, loyal 
to the backbone. His loyalty, his patience, his scrupulous 
honesty, his kindly disposition, and his shrewd common 
sense, undoubtedly stood England, as well as Egypt, in good 
stead," says one of his personal friends and admirers. 

The news of his death fell on Europe like a dynamite 
explosion. His heir was a boy who had reached the legal 
age when a Khedive may assume the reins of government. 
Young Abbas Hilmi Pasha, with his brother Mehemet Ali, 
had been early surrounded by English servants and had had 
English governesses and an English tutor. There had been 
at one time talk of sending the boys to Eton, but the Church 
of England rules of Eton management made it difficult for 
the authorities to arrange for the education of a young 
Mohammedan. In 1886 Abbas Pasha, then twelve, and 
his brother, to whom he was fondly attached, were feted in 
Paris, and treated with all honor. Much less attention was 
paid to them in England, which has been often accused 
of treating the visits of Oriental princes with indifference. 
Indeed, Abbas proved recalcitrant when the day came for 
their visit to Queen Victoria at Windsor, and wanted to go 
instead to the Zoological Gardens. 

The boys were sent with their tutor to Vienna, where, at 
the Theresiangiam Academy, they found themselves asso- 
ciated with a number of other juvenile princes, and any 
number of counts and barons ; for, out of three hundred 
students, there were but five commoners in the establish- 
ment. 

During the time the boys stayed in this institution they 
followed the same course of study, and were bound by the 
same rigid rules, as their fellow-pupils ; and, severe as the 



THE CAPTIVES OF THE MAHDI. 121 

course of study was, it was added to in their case by private 
masters. Abbas was permitted, however, to devote a good 
deal of his time to riding and dancing lessons. A learned 
Turk instructed him in the Koran, in Turkish, and in 
Arabic. 

Occasionally the princes attended fetes at court, or went 
to the theatre and opera ; this probably completed their disin- 
clination for strict school hfe, and Prince Abbas, in 1891, the 
year before his accession, was provided with a house and 
establishment of his own. They led a very quiet, decent life 
in Vienna, pursuing their studies, surrounded by a little co- 
terie of friends of their own age, always, however, under the 
superintendence of M. Roulier, who had been appointed 
their Highnesses' governor. 

This pleasant life was interrupted by the sudden call of 
Prince Abbas to his inheritance. It is said his reception of 
the news was both becoming and dignified; and "during 
all the varied phases of his journey to Cairo and of the 
inauguration of his reign, all he said and did was pleasing 
and most proper." At Trieste he narrowly escaped being 
carried off to Constantinople by agents of his suzerain, os- 
tensibly on a visit, — but Oriental princes have too often 
found it hard to leave Constantinople after accepting the 
Sultan's invitation. 

He was kept waiting several months for his firman of 
investiture, and when it came it was found that it contained 
a clause that would have deprived him of the possession of 
the Sinai peninsula. His English advisers insisted that 
this should be rectified, and after much discussion it was 
done accordingly. In his first public utterance of impor- 
tance he declared that it would be his sincere endeavor to 
continue the good work begun by his father. 

It is not surprising that a youth of his age should chafe 
against the restraints put on him by the tutelage to which 
his position condemns him; and it is said he resents the 
somewhat cold dignity of his English advisers. He has 
already once or twice shown signs of kicking against the 



122 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

pricks. But only the future will prove how far he will 
brook the guidance of foreigners. 

His grandfather Ismail died March 2, 1895, at Constan- 
tinople, where a palace had been assigned him by the Sultan, 
in which he lived, not as a guest, but as a prisoner. He 
had been very desiroas to revisit Egypt before his death, 
but his talent for intrigue was well known and this happi- 
ness was denied him. He was buried, however, at Cairo, 
receiving from his grandson a magnificent state funeral. 
He was in the sixty-second year of his age. 



CHAPTER V. 

LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 

TURNING aside for a time from questions and from 
controversies connected with England and her occu- 
pation of Egypt, this chapter shall tell of the founding of 
Congo Free State, and of its heroes, David Livingstone 
and Henry Moreland Stanley. They were not directly 
founders of the Congo Free State, but their histories, un- 
doubtedly, influenced its formation, and have stimulated 
the world's interest in its success. 

Congo Free State may be briefly described as the very 
interior of the African Continent. It is of vast extent, 
being supposed to contain about one million three hundred 
thousand square miles, and, although sparsely populated as 
yet, has been thought to contain forty millions of inhabi- 
tants. 

The great river Congo, more than three thousand miles 
in length, rises in the southeastern part of Congo Free 
State territory, flows north about fifteen hundred miles, then 
turns abruptly west for about a thousand miles, and then, 
almost as abruptly, flows southerly, forming the western 
boundary of Congo Free State. 

The Victoria and Albert Nyanzas are in the Equatorial 
provinces which lie east of Congo Free State, but between 
these lakes and Consjo Free State lie lands under the author- 
ity or "influence" of the British East African Company, 
with not very definite boundaries of their Hinterland. The 
flag of the new state is a field of blue with a golden star in 
the centre. 

123 



124 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

It was owing to considerable concessions of the purely 
imaginary rights of the Portuguese that Congo Free State 
was founded; for by a bull at the close of the fifteenth 
century the Pope drew a line down the middle of the At- 
lantic, and gave to Spain all undiscovered countries west 
of that line, and to the Portuguese all on the east of it. 
Spain, in virtue of this bull, established her authority over 
vast South American and Central American territories. But 
other nations and other events restricted her aspirations, 
Avhile Portugal, having no one anxious to dispute her claims, 
established what posts and settlements she pleased on the 
west coast of Africa, and, indeed, asserted her right to a 
large part of the whole continent. 

As I have said, a curious feature of our own times is the 
disposition of the Chief Powers of Europe to annex Afri- 
can territory. Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy 
seem anxious to compete with each other in unfurling flags 
of protection over the Dark Continent. It was partly to 
prevent quarrels on this subject in the uncertain regions of 
the interior, and to leave that country open to mission- 
aries and commerce, that the King of the Belgians proposed 
this Congo Free State, under himself as its chief protector. 
The idea was accepted and approved, in 1878, at the Berlin 
Conference; England, Denmark, Italy, Austria, Holland, 
Belgium, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Norway gave in their 
adhesion, while Germany, Portugal, and France seem to 
have assented tacitly to the arrangement. By it all these 
nations have equal rights in the Free State, but none have 
the right to annex any of it. All have an equal right to 
navigate the Congo, and to trade with the natives. The 
country is governed, so far as any government can be 
applied to it, by delegates, each nation that takes part in 
the protectorate sending one to Brussels, and the King of 
the Belgians is the head of these delegates. That is, this 
has been its government thus far. It is now proposed to 
make the kingdom of Belgium sole ruler of the Free State. 

David Livingstone was born in Scotland in 18 13. His 



--^1 



LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 12$ 

family had for generations cultivated a little farm in the 
island of Ulva. The superfluous young men became sol- 
diers and sailors. All were distinguished for their upright- 
ness and honesty. Livingstone ' s father, however, finding that 
the island farm could no longer support his family, moved 
to the neighborhood of some cotton mills in Lanarkshire, 
and David was put to work in the mill when of tender 
years. The first half-crown he earned he put, with delight, 
into his mother's lap. Very soon he saved up his pence 
and bought a Latin book, which he studied diligently, going 
regularly to night-school, though working at the mill from 
sunrise to sunset. Whenever the chance occurred, he took 
long walks with his brother in the country, looking out for 
healing herbs and curiosities. He soon became an excel- 
lent Latin scholar, with a large store of general informa- 
tion. His father had religious scruples concerning scientific 
books, but Livingstone felt that where science was true it 
must tread in the footsteps of God, and that whatever is 
truth is in agreement with His will. 

At the age of twenty-three he had made up his mind to 
become a missionary. 

To this end he went to college, working hard in his vaca- 
tion to raise money to pay the college fees, and living at 
the least possible expense. He and his father once spent 
a whole day walking about Glasgow, till they should find a 
furnished room at two shillings a week. 

Livingstone next went to London, and was sent to the 
Presbyterian Missionary Training School at Ongar. His 
first idea was to go out to China, but the Opium War 
delayed his departure, and he decided for South Africa; 
being moved thereto by having formed the acquaintance 
of the pioneer missionary in that field — Dr. Moffat. Liv- 
ingstone had studied medicine to help him in his work, and 
he had also learned the use of tools. At sea he learned 
the uses of the quadrant. All these things in his after career 
were of inestimable use to him. 

Dr. Moffat had advised him not to settle down on ground 



126 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

already occupied, but to press to the northward. For a 
year or two he was principally occupied in studying the 
language of the natives. Dr. Moffat was stationed among 
the Kafirs of Cape Colony. In course of time Livingstone 
married the Doctor's daughter Mary, and built a house for 
her at a mission station two hundred and fifty miles beyond 
any other mission settlement in South Africa. There they 
lived, busy and happy, in their own home. But this tran- 
quil life did not last long. A missionary of a different 
stamp came out to South Africa, who asserted his claim to 
their mission station. Livingstone gave up to him the 
house that he had built with his own hands, and moved 
away to a far less promising district, where his wife grew 
wan with want and labor. There was a native king, called 
Sebituane, who lived beyond a dreadful desert to the north, 
and was reputed to be an able and excellent sovereign. Liv- 
ingstone greatly desired to carry to him the blessings of 
Christianity. With his wife and little children he set out 
to find him; at one time the party was four days without 
water. After several attempts to cross the desert, they at 
last succeeded, and, on reaching Sebituane's presence, they 
were cordially received by him. Alas! Livingstone had 
never but once an opportunity of addressing the King on 
the subject of Christianity. He died of inflammation of 
the lungs two weeks after the arrival of the missionary 
family. His last words were an order which would secure 
for Livingstone and his party safety and consideration 
among his people. 

Sebituane being dead, Livingstone returned to his mis- 
sion station. The Boers, who hated him on account of 
his opposition to their system of Kafir slavery, had, in 
his absence, attacked his home, and destroyed everything, 
including his beloved books and papers. 

His wife then went to England with her children, and 
for the next ten years Livingstone, wifeless and homeless, 
was left free to carry out his great project of crossing Africa, 
with a view of seeing if there might not be some great river, 



LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 12 J 

along whose banks civilization might find its way into the 
interior, and a legitimate trade arise which, in the end, 
would supplant the slave-trade; for one great reason (I had 
almost said necessity) for the slave-trade is, that when Arab 
merchants have bought ivory in the interior they cannot 
move it to the coast except on the shoulders of slaves, who 
are sold when the ivory is disposed of. He also believed 
that in the interior of Africa he would find a high and 
healthy plateau, well adapted for mission stations. 

With a small party of the Makololo, a tribe among whom 
he had been living, he made his way northward, and thence 
westward, to St. Paul de Loando, a Portuguese settlement 
on the west coast of Africa. There a captain, about to 
sail for England, offered him a passage home. The temp- 
tation was great, but he would not desert his poor follow- 
ers, and recrossed the Continent with them to their homes. 

At one point of his journey he was very near discovering 
the head-waters of the Congo, but though he afterwards 
found himself upon its banks, he was quite unaware that he 
had struck that important river. The discovery was not to 
be his. He, however, made certain what a great river the 
Zambesi was, and, having received two hundred men from 
the Makololo chief, with offers of ivory to pay his expenses, 
he followed the course of the Zambesi to the sea. There 
he embarked for home, and there his faithful followers 
awaited his return. 

To me, this waiting of these faithful Makololo for two 
years with patient trust in him who had gone away over the 
unknown and mysterious ocean^ is one of the world's most 
touching illustrations of a child-like faith. 

Livingstone returned to England too late to embrace his 
old father, who had died two weeks before he landed, but 
he was received with rapturous enthusiasm by the public, 
which almost overwhelmed him, for it was far removed from 
his habits, or his tastes, to play the part of a lion or a hero. 

Speaking of lions reminds me of an adventure Living- 
stone once had with one of them. He had gone with a 



128 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

party of natives to kill a maurauding lion, or to drive him 
away from one of the Makololo villages. The beast, being 
wounded, sprang at Livingstone, crushed his arm, made 
eleven flesh wounds in his shoulder, and then shook him as 
a cat does a mouse. The effect of this shake was to extin- 
guish all sensation. He was as if under the influence of 
an anaesthetic, while he knew all that was happening to him, 
but felt nothing. Some one in London asked him what he 
thought of at such a moment? He answered: "I only re- 
member wondering what part of me he would eat first." 
He was saved by the death of the lion, which expired sud- 
denly. 

During his stay in England he wrote a book, which he 
said was harder work to him than crossing a savage conti- 
nent. It brought him great fame, and several thousand 
pounds, most of which he gave for missionary work in 
Africa. He endured his lionizing as a sacrifice he had 
to make of himself to further the cause that he had in hand; 
and he made speeches — noble, modest. Christian speeches 
— all over Great Britain. He saw the Queen and Prince 
Albert, and he made a life-long friend of Sir Roderick 
Murchison, President of the Royal Geographical Society. 

Largely through Sir Roderick's influence he went back to 
Africa empowered to explore the Zambesi and the eastern part 
of the great continent; he was also to find, if possible, the 
sources of the Nile. He was, besides, to explore the great 
Lake Nyasa, which he had discovered in 1861, and Lake 
Tanganyika, discovered in 1858 by Speke and Burton. To 
give him official dignity, he was made British consul for 
Eastern Africa. 

This second expedition was not brilliantly successful 
like the first. He was hampered by too many coadjutors, 
and he was a man who worked best by himself. The two 
missions he took out with him failed, — the one on the Zam- 
besi by the loss of Bishop Mackenzie, whose illness and death 
followed the loss of his medicine chest, and the other by 
the climate ill-understood. 



LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 1 29 

Livingstone did not find the sources of the Nile. His 
wife, who had accompanied him, died, and was buried near 
an African village. He wandered up and down, backward 
and forward, almost, it seems to us, aimlessly, for several 
years. His heart was torn by witnessing the horrors of slave- 
trafific, and embittered by the thought that it was he who 
had pointed out fresh tracks to the slave-hunters, and deliv- 
ered to their cruelty and greed the confiding natives who 
had received him with hospitality, and believed in his 
Christian love. 

Before leaving this part of his story, it may be well to say 
that there were two things more than others that impaired 
his success — the slave-dealers and the tsetse fly. I should 
like to say a few words about that singular and dreadful 
insect, which prevents the use of horses and cattle in cer- 
tain parts of Africa, particularly in the region along the 
Zambesi. 

It is not much larger than an ordinary horse-fly, and is 
perfectly harmless to man, but one bite is even more dan- 
gerous to ox, horse, or dog, than the bite of a lion. xA few 
days after the animal has been bitten it wastes away, appar- 
ently by a combination of lung trouble, catarrh, and paral- 
ysis. Every tissue becomes diseased, and it dies a lingering 
death after great suffering. The tsetse fly is very mysterious 
in its habits and residence. Often it will not cross a stream. 
It seems to recognize metes and bounds, and, what is still 
more singular, it does not attack wild animals, however 
closely allied to domestic ones. 

Livingstone went back again to England in 1864, but the 
government was not sufficiently satisfied with the results 
of his explorations to grant him a further commission with 
government supplies. The Geographical Society, however, 
sent him back, with directions to make the Zambesi his base 
of operations. Of the Zambesi I shall have more to say 
when it connects itself with the history of German explora- 
tions and of the Imperial British East African Company. 
Livingstone began his new journey at the close of 1865. 

K 



130 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

He had with him thirty black men, twelve of them Sepoys, 
sixteen Johanna men from the Comoro Islands, while two 
(Susi and Chumah) were from the banks of the Zambesi. Of 
all the thirty these two only were found faithful for seven 
years — faithful to the last, and even more than to the 
last. Livingstone explored Lake Tanganyika. He discov- 
ered the sources of the Congo, and its head-waters, though 
he believed them to be those of the Nile. He was proceed- 
ing to follow northward the great chain of lakes through 
which "the serpent of old Nile" winds its way, when he 
was forced to return to Ujiji, a native town on the eastern 
shore of Lake Tanganyika. There he found that supplies 
ordered by him from Zanzibar had arrived, but that the men 
having them in charge, having ascertained by sorcery that 
he was dead, had sold them. Livingstone was ill, penni- 
less, and — as nearly as a Christian may be — in despair. 

Two English expeditions had been sent out to succor him, 
but both had failed to find him. 

We all know how, at this moment, when his only hope 
was in the kindness of an Arab trader, who offered to sell 
ivory to get him means to reach Zanzibar, Stanley reached 
him; Stanley, who had been sent out by the "New York 
Herald ' ' with the sole order : " Take what money you want, 
but find Livingstone." 

The story is well known, but it will bear repeating in the 
actors' own words: "I felt in my destitution," says Living- 
stone in his journal, "as if I were the man who went down 
from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, but I 
could not hope for priest, Levite, or Samaritan. Yet the 
last was close at hand, for one morning Susi came running 
to me, and gasping out : ' An Englishman ! I see him ! ' 
darted off to meet him. The American flag at the head 
of the procession told of the nationality of the stranger. 
Bales of goods, baths of tin, huge kettles, cooking pots, 
tents — all made me think : ' This must be a luxurious trav- 
eller, and not one at his wits' ends like me.' It was Henry 
Moreland Stanley, the travelling correspondent of the * New 




HENRY MO RE LAND STANLEY. 



LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 131 

York Herald, ' sent by James Gordon Bennett, at an expense 
of more than four thousand pounds, to obtain accurate 
information about me, and, if I were dead, to bring back 
my bones." 

And Stanley writes thus : — 

"We push on rapidly. The port of Ujiji is below us, em- 
bowered in palms. We had been told of a white man with a 
gray beard at Ujiji. Our hearts are with our eyes trying to peer 
into the palms, and to make out the hut where that white man 
lived. Suddenly I hear on my right a voice say: 'Good morn- 
ing, sir! ' I turn sharply round, and see a man with the blackest 
of faces, in a long white shirt, and a turban round his woolly 
head, and I ask: ^Who are you.^" 'I am Susi, the servant of 
Doctor Livingstone.' 'What! is Doctor Livingstone here?' 
' Yes, sir.' ' Are you sure ? ' ' Sure, sir — I leave him just now.' 
* Good morning, sir ! ' said another voice. ' Hallo ! ' said I, ' is 
this another? What's your name ? ' ^ My name is Chumah, sir.' 
'And is the Doctor well?' ^Not very well, sir.' 'Now you, 
Susi, run and tell the Doctor I am coming.' And off he ran like 
a madman. In the meantime one of the expedition said to me : 
' I see the Doctor. Oh! what an old man ! He has got a white 
beard.' As I advanced slowly towards him I noticed he was 
pale, looked wearied, had a gray beard, wore a bluish cap with 
a faded gold band, a sign of his being an English consul, had 
a red-sleeved waistcoat, and a pair of gray tweed trousers. I 
did not know how he would receive me. I had been prepared 
at Zanzibar to think that he now shunned Europeans. I walked^ 
deliberately towards him, and raised my hat. ' Doctor Living- 
stone, I presume?' 'Yes,' he said, with a kind smile, lifting his 
cap shghtly. We both grasp hands; I say aloud: ^I thank 
God, Doctor, that I have been permitted to see you.' He an- 
swered, ' I am thankful I am here to welcome you.' We seat 
ourselves under the broad overhanging eaves of his house, a 
thousand natives round us. ' How did you come here ? ' ' Where 
have you been all this long time ? The world believed you 
dead.' But whatever the Doctor informed me I cannot correctly 
repeat. I was gazing at him, conning the wonderful man at 
whose side I now sat in Central Africa. Every hair of his head 
and beard, every wrinkle of his face, the wanness, the slightly 
wearied look, were all imparting to me the knowledge I had so 
craved for since I heard Mr. Bennett's words : '■ Take what you 
want, but find Livingstone.' He had so much to say that he 
began at the end a marvellous history of deeds. I gave him the 



132 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

bag of letters. He kept it on his lap, read one or two of his 
children's, his face lighting up the while. He asked me to tell 
him the news. 'No, Doctor — read your letters first. I am sure 
you must be impatient to read them.' *=Ah !' he said, 'I have 
waited years for letters, and I have been taught patience.' After- 
wards came the first meal together, — a feast of welcome. And 
he kept on repeating, ' You have brought me new life ! You 
have brought me new hfe ! ' " 

Four months the two men stayed together, visiting 
that part of Lake Tanganyika which Livingstone had not 
yet explored. Stanley was charmed with his companion, 
and Livingstone with Stanley. "I never saw a fault in 
him," said Stanley; "each day added to my admiration of 
him." 

The Doctor had given up his connection with the mis- 
sionary society, saying that he ought not to take their money, 
being in government pay as an explorer, but he did mis- 
sionary work on his travels, all the same. Stanley urged 
him to go home with him and recruit, but he would not go 
home until his work should be done, and the sources of the 
Nile discovered. Stanley says of him: — 

" He followed the dictates of duty. With every foot of 
ground he travelled over he forged a new link in the chain 
of sympathy that shall hereafter bind the Christian nations 
in bonds of love and charity to the heathen of the African 
tropics. Had he been able to complete the chain so as to 
attract the good and charitable of his own land to bestir 
themselves for the redemption and salvation of these 
heathen black people, he would have felt it an ample 
reward." 

It was in the spring of 1872 that Stanley parted from 
Livingstone. The Doctor continued his wanderings, but 
they were not productive of any great results in the way of 
fresh discovery. On May i, 1873, the boy who slept at 
the door of the hut in which he was lying very ill became 
alarmed at the stillness. He called Susi and Chuinah. 
They found him kneeling dead beside his bed, his hands 
clasped in prayer. The two faithful servants gathered up 



LIVINGS TONE AND STANLE Y. 1 3 3 

every scrap that had belonged to him, even morsels of news- 
paper. They embalmed his body as well as they were 
able, and bore it to Zanzibar, whence they went with it to 
England. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, — that 
Abbey where, as a young medical missionary student, he 
had wandered with a friend, and " drew strength and inspi- 
ration," he has told us, "from great men's monuments." 

Dean Stanley read the funeral service, and Henry Stanley 
was one of the pall-bearers. The grief of Susi and Chumah 
as the body was lowered into its grave was touching to 
every one. 

"The question. Who is Henry Stanley? was asked from one 
end to the other of Christendom, after his great exploit of 
finding Livingstone became known to tb(e world. He had 
been a poor boy named John Rowlands, born near Denbigh 
on the borders of Wales and England, so poor that, when 
he was ten years of age, fatherless and relationless, his 
mother was glad to get him admitted to the poorhouse at 
St. Asaphs. There, unlike the pauper children in the days 
of Oliver Twist and Mr. Bumble, he received good care 
and excellent instruction. In the early days of his pros- 
perity and fame he went back to the old poorhouse and 
gave a feast to all the inmates, telling the boys, in a speech 
he made to them, that he owed every success that he had 
had in life to the good instruction he had received there. 

When he was about fourteen he was permitted to teach 
in a village school in the neighborhood of Denbigh. A 
year later he shipped from Liverpool to New Orleans as a 
cabin boy. At New Orleans something appears to have 
brought him into relations with a rich merchant, a Mr. 
Stanley, who adopted him, made him take his name, and 
took him into business with him. Mr. Stanley, however, 
died suddenly without a will, and Henry, just of age, was 
thrown upon his own resources. Our Civil War was break- 
ing out, and he went into the Southern army. He was 
taken prisoner in a skirmish in Virginia, and, having been 
born a British subject, thought it no treachery to enlist in the 



134 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

United States Naval Service. He rose to be acting engi- 
neer on board the Ticonderoga. When the war was over 
he went, for a while, to the West, whence he sent such spir- 
ited letters to the press that he was commissioned by the 
" New York Herald " to go with the English expedition that 
overthrew King Theodore of Abyssinia. Subsequent engage- 
ments with the " Herald " sent him to Coomassie, and made 
him a witness of the Carlist War in Spain in 1876. He 
was so satisfactory to his employers that James Gordon 
Bennett, the somewhat eccentric proprietor of the " New 
York Herald," having suddenly conceived the idea of send- 
ing a party in search of Livingstone, telegraphed to Stanley 
(then in Bombay) to join him at once in Paris. Before 
Bennett expected his arrival, Stanley presented himself at 
the door of his bedroom in Paris, and, after the *' Come 
in! " was hailed by Mr. Bennett from his bed with, "Who 
are you?" "I am Stanley." "Well! I want you to go and 
find Livingstone." " I am ready." And in these few words 
the matter was settled. 

We have seen how Stanley executed his commission, and 
how generous Mr. Bennett proved himself — but it all seemed 
so wonderful, that when the news reached America, half the 
world did not believe his exploit. They thought the story 
was an invention on the part of the "New York Herald." 

I was sending articles at that time to a local paper of high 
standing, and sent in one on the subject, speaking with 
what we now know to be just praise of Stanley's exploit. 
The editor sent back the article to me with a memorandum 
in blue pencil: "We take no stock in Stanley." But soon 
the world began to recognize him as one of its great men, 
and a little jealousy of American achievements passed away 
in England when it was known that Stanley was as much 
English as he was American. 

At Livingstone's funeral Stanley made a vow to carry out 
the work that his friend had left unfinished. That work 
was thoroughly to explore Lake Tanganyika, and see if it 
was in any way connected with the sources of the Nile, to 



LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 135 

explore the Victoria Nyanza for the same purpose, and to 
see what was the great river called the Chambesi, Lualaba, 
and Laptula, which had been found by Livingstone. 

It is very hard to understand African geography without 
the aid of recent maps. 

1. There is the Nile, running directly north to the Medi- 
terranean. 

2. There is the Congo, with its sources not so very far dis- 
tant (as distances appear upon the map) from the head-waters 
of the Nile. Crook the forefinger of your right hand and 
you will have the course of the Congo as it finds its way 
northerly, westwardly, and southerly to the Atlantic Ocean. 
Your nail will be its mouth. The equator runs through its 
course about the middle. 

Zanzibar is on an island. The island had from a hundred 
to a hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants at the time of 
which we are about to speak; its population in 1894 was 
one hundred and sixty-five thousand. It had in that day an 
enlightened sultan. It lies about twenty-five miles from 
the mainland, a town on which, called Bagamoyo, is the spot 
where travellers disembark upon the African continent. 
There is a flourishing Roman Cathohc missionary establish- 
ment there, of both priests and sisters. Directly west from 
Bagamoyo, after weeks of travel through jungle and swamp, 
forest and prairie, the traveller will reach Lake Tanganyika, 
probably striking it, as Stanley did, at Ujiji, where he 
found Livingstone. 

Lake Tanganyika is over four hundred miles long and 
varies in breadth from sixty to thirty miles. No river of 
any great volume seems to flow from it. 

South of Lake Tanganyika, but not connected with it, and 
indeed some hundred miles away, is another long-shaped 
lake larger than Tanganyika. This is called Lake Nyasa. 
Stanley never visited it, so it has nothing to do with our 
story. Livingstone, however, sailed upon its waters. South- 
west of Tanganyika, and about as far from it as Nyasa is 
upon the east, is Lake Bemba or Bangweolo. There Liv- 



136 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY, 

ingstone died. Into this lake flows a strong river, the 
Chambesi, and out of it flows the River Lualaba. These 
two are the Congo, a name we still use, though Mr. Stanley 
tried very hard to make us call it the Livingstone River. It 
was in the attempt to ascertain all this that Dr. Livingstone 
died. 

Northeast of Tanganyika is a perfect network of lakes, 
the principal of which is the Victoria Nyanza. Nyanza is 
the local African word for water. Out of the Victoria 
Nyanza flows northerly the Nile, which between the Victoria 
Nyanza and the Albert Nyanza is called the Victoria Nile. 
After leaving the iVlbert Nyanza it eventually becomes the 
White Nile, and at Khartoum is joined by the Blue Nile, 
fed by snows and rains from the mountains of Abyssinia. 

Through all this eastern part of Central Africa is a per- 
fect chain of lakes, among them the Albert Nyanza, with 
whose shores we have become pretty well acquainted in 
recent years. Around its northern and western part lie 
those provinces of the Soudan which Gordon entrusted to 
the government of Emin Bey and Lupton, and not very far 
from the Albert Nyanza, to the north, on the White Nile, is 
Gondokoro, the seat of government of Sir Samuel Baker^ 
and afterwards of Gordon in the days of his first connection 
with the Soudan. When I say " not far," it must be under- 
stood that I mean not many weeks of march, for journeys 
in Central Africa are performed on foot, and, as there is 
no money, goods have to be transported on the heads of 
bearers to buy supplies, or to pay the tribute exacted by 
the chiefs before they will grant right of way through their 
country. Each man hired as a porter carries on his head 
through jungle and swamp a load of sixty pounds. 

While Stanley was pondering over his wish to follow in 
the footsteps of Livingstone, he went one day into the office 
of the " Daily Telegraph," a London paper then edited by 
Edwin Arnold. " Do you really want to go again to Africa? " 
asked Mr. Arnold, "and will you go this time for us?" 
The result was that the "Daily Telegraph" and the "New 



LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 137 

York Herald " united to furnish money for the expenses of 
the expedition, and Stanley was sent out to make that mar- 
vellous journey across the Dark Continent which is one of 
the most wonderful achievements of modern times. 

He took with him three young Englishmen, not one of 
whom lived to return home, and he had two hundred and 
twenty-four natives when he left Zanzibar. He pushed 
westward first to Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, and then pro- 
ceeded northeast, for part of his mission was to examine 
the shores of the Victoria Nyanza. After many weeks of 
terrible journeying through swamps and jungle, full of all 
kinds of malarious exhalations, he found himself, by Janu- 
ary, 1875, in a terribly unhealthy district, where one of his 
young Englishmen, the younger of two brothers named 
Pocock, died. The party reached the Victoria Nyanza 
after five months' journey, having lost, besides Pocock, 
twenty men by death and eighty-nine by desertion. Stan- 
ley had brought a boat with him in sections, each section 
carried on a man's head. She was named the Lady Alice. 
They launched her on the Victoria Nyanza, and, in spite of 
attacks from the natives, the lake was circumnavigated. 

Next Stanley reached Uganda, the country of King 'Mtesa, 
a monarch of whom Captain Speke, who had visited him 
not long before, gave the very worst character. 

They had explored the shores of Victoria Nyanza in 1875 ; 
they quitted them in August for the court of King 'Mtesa, 
who had already expressed his friendliness in various ways. 
But 'Mtesa, when Stanley reached him, was at war, and both 
unable and unwilling to spare men to accompany him as he 
wished to Lake Mutu Nzige (now Lake Albert Edward) ; 
he assured Stanley, however, that if he would wait till he had 
ended his campaign, he would send him on his way with 
every help in his power. 

'Mtesa was a potentate of ability and authority, bearing 
rule over many minor chiefs. He had an immense army, 
and it was well organized. When he came to his throne in 
i860 he was a pagan, and Captain Speke told dreadful stories 



138 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

of his ferocious cruelties, when he saw him at his court in 
1863 ; but it is possible that Speke's evident disapproval of 
these deeds, though it never rose to remonstrance, acted on 
the king's better nature, for he took the earliest opportunity 
of learning better things from an Arab trader, who converted 
him from idolatry to at least the knowledge of one God, as 
a Mohammedan. 

There is no part of Stanley's book, " Through the Dark 
Continent," so interesting or so surprising as those pages 
which record the missionary efforts of the reporter of the 
"New York Herald," to carry on the conversion of this intel- 
ligent and teachable barbarian to Christianity. He tells us : 

" On the afternoon which succeeded the massacre of a 
favorite page by the enemy, I tried to please him by acting 
as a scientific encyclopedia, endeavoring to expound the 
secrets of Nature and the works of Providence, the wonders 
of the heavens, the air, and the earth. We gossiped about 
the nature of rocks and metals, and how the cunning of 
Europeans had invented means to convert them to a vast 
variety of uses. The dread despot sat with wide-dilated 
eyes and an all-devouring attention. . . . During my ex- 
temporized lecture I happened to mention angels. On 
hearing the word 'Mtesa screamed with joy, and to my great 
astonishment all around us chorussed ^ Ah ! ah ! ah ! ' The 
boisterous outburst over, 'Mtesa said : * Stamlee, I have 
always told my chiefs that the white men knew everything, 
and are skillful in all things. A great many Arabs, some 
Turks, and four white men have visited me ; and I have 
examined them, and heard them all talk, and for wisdom 
and goodness the white men excel all the others. Why do 
Arabs and Turks come to Uganda? Is it not for ivory and 
slaves ? Why do the white men come ? They come to see 
this land, our lake, our rivers, and mountains. The Arabs 
bring cloth, beads, and wire to buy ivory and slaves, they 
also bring powder and guns. But who made all those things 
the Arabs bring here to trade? The Arabs themselves say 
the white men made them, and I have seen nothing yet of 



LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 1 39 

all they have brought that the white men did not make. 
Therefore I say : Give me the white men, because if you 
want knowledge you must talk with them to get it. Now, 
Stamlee, tell me and my chiefs all you know about angels ! ' 
Verily the question was a difficult one, and the answer would 
not have satisfied Europeans. Remembering, however, 
St. Paul's confession that he was ' all things to all men,' I 
attempted to give as vivid a description of what angels are 
generally supposed to be like, and as Michael Angelo and 
Gustave Dore have represented them, as possible, and with 
the aid of Ezekiel's and Milton's descriptions I believe I 
succeeded in satisfying and astonishing the king and his 
court, and in order to show him that I had authority for 
what I said, I sent to my camp for the Bible, and translated 
to him what Ezekiel and St. John said about angels. . . . 
This little incident, trivial as it may appear, had very in- 
teresting results. Encyclopedia-talk was forgotten in the 
grander and more sublime themes which Scripture and 
divinity contributed. The emperor cast covetous glances 
at the Bible, and my Church of England Prayer Book, and 
perceiving his wish, I introduced to him a boy named 
Dollington, a native pupil of the Universities Mission at 
Zanzibar, who could translate the Bible into his own lan- 
guage for him, and otherwise communicate to him what I 
wished to say. Henceforth, during the intervals of leisure 
that the war gave us, we were to be seen, — the king, court, 
Dollington, and I, engaged in the translation of an abstract 
of the Holy Scriptures. Having abundance of writing paper 
with me, I made a large book for him, into which the writ- 
ings were fairly copied. When completed 'Mtesa possessed 
an abridged Protestant Bible, embracing all the principal 
events from the Creation to the Crucifixion of Christ. 
St. Luke's Gospel was translated entire, as giving the most 
complete history of the Saviour's life. One day 'Mtesa 
called round him his chiefs, and made them an oration, 
saying that when he had succeeded his father he was a 
heathen, and delighted in shedding blood, but that when an 



140 . EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

Arab trader, who was a priest, taught him the creed of 
Islam, he perceived that was better. Yet he could not 
believe all the Mohammedan had told him. But ' as it was 
in his heart to be good,' he had trusted God would over- 
look his follies, and forgive him, and hoped He would send 
men who knew what was right, to Uganda. That hope had 
been fulfilled. * And now,' he continued, after a much 
longer exhortation on behalf of the Bible, ' now what shall 
we do?' His chiefs, seeing the bent of their master's 
mind, replied, ^ We will take the white man's book ! ' In 
this manner 'Mtesa renounced Islamism, and professed 
himself a convert to the Christian faith, and he announced 
his intention to adhere to his new religion, to build a church, 
and do all in his power to promote the propagation of 
Christian sentiments among his people, and to conform to 
the best of his ability to the holy precepts contained in the 
Bible. I, on the other hand, proud of my convert, with whom 
I had diligently labored three months, left him Dollington, 
who was willing to stay, to become his Bible reader till the 
good people of Europe should send a priest to baptize 
him, and to teach him the duties of the Christian religion. 
' Stamlee,' said 'Mtesa to me, as we parted, * say to the 
white people that I am like a man sitting in darkness, or 
born blind, and all I ask is that I may be taught how to see, 
and I shall continue a Christian while I live.' " 

Having next gone south for a further exploration of Lake 
Tanganyika, the party set out for the river Lualaba. This 
part of their journey was the most disastrous. They had 
numbers of desertions, even Stanley's own body-servant, a 
boy named Kalulu; for the African burden carriers had 
been persuaded at Ujiji that they were going to be killed 
and eaten by cannibals. Small-pox also broke out. The 
road they travelled was difficult, yet all along their route 
they met Arab traders. 

On reaching the town of Nyangwe, they found there, as 
they expected, the greatest of all the Arab traders in Central 
Africa, Hamed ben Mahommed, commonly called Tippu 



LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY, 141 

Tib. No man had been so great an African explorer. Of 
course he had had transactions in the slave-trade, for, car- 
riers being very difficult to obtain (the experience of all 
travellers has proved it), those who had no scruples about 
slave -snatching or slave-buying naturally had recourse to 
the slave-trade for their means of transportation. 

Stanley was much impressed by Tippu Tib, — his appear- 
ance and his ability. Tippu Tib had, a year or two before, 
escorted Cameron, when he traversed those regions, and 
had crossed the Lualaba, not suspecting it to be the Congo. 
Wonderful tales were told Stanley by the Arabs concerning 
the fierce dwarfs, with their country full of ivory, whose 
lands he would have to pass through, and it was certain that 
the difficulties of the route had proved too great for Cam- 
eron and Livingstone. The stories of the Arab traders 
were wonderfully picturesque and read like pages from the 
"Arabian Nights." Stanley subsequently in his journey to 
find Emin was able to verify them. 

After much difficulty he made a bargain with Tippu Tib 
to accompany him with a band of his followers for sixty 
marches, about a month's journey. 

Stanley relates how he and his last remaining Englishman, 
Frank Pocock, uncertain what course to pursue, whether to 
go down the great river Lualaba, and see whether it emptied 
into lake or sea, or cross the country to the half -discovered 
Matu Nzige, tossed up for it, like Lord Ashburton and Mr. 
Webster for an island in the St. Lawrence, through which 
ran the boundary line between the United States and Can- 
ada. 

They left Nyangwe on Guy Fawkes' day, November 5, 
1876, perfectly uncertain whither they were going; "car- 
rying a flash of light," as Stanley said, "across the Dark 
Continent." After ten days' march through dense forests, 
Tippu Tib's courage gave way, but, by bribery and strong 
persuasion he was induced to go on twenty days further. 
He said that at the rate they were able to travel the sixty 
marches he had bargained for would take a year. 



142 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

On November 19 they reached the Lualaba, — the Living- 
stone river, — the Congo; and Stanley decided on launching 
his brave little Lady Alice, building canoes, and, avoiding 
more travelling through the forests, float down the unknown 
water to the great salt sea. 

They parted from Tippu Tib about Christmas, 1876, 
and thenceforward went on alone. Tippu returned in 
safety to Nyangw^. We have not space to continue the 
story of their wanderings, but all may be read in Stanley's 
own words in "Through the Dark Continent." They jour- 
neyed north, and still went northward, attempting portages 
when the river proved impracticable, and assaulted by fierce 
natives in many places. On the last day of January, 1877, 
the river seemed increasing in breadth. They had been 
fighting their way for a month through savages unwilling 
that they should navigate their river, when suddenly an im- 
mense flotilla of great war canoes came down upon them, 
and they fought and won the last of twenty-six combats 
they had had with the barbarians. 

They were now satisfied that they were upon the Congo. 
They had cleared the seventh cataract, were travelling west- 
ward, and had passed what are now known as Stanley Falls. 
They continued to sail onward toward the west, as they had 
before sailed northward, for a thousand miles. They were 
encouraged by seeing weapons of English manufacture in 
the hands of the natives, a proof that they were approaching 
the outskirts of civilization. 

On June 5, 1877, poor Frank Pocock was drowned. His 
feet had been crippled by ulcers, for he and Stanley had 
long travelled barefoot, but he had, without orders, crept 
into a boat that was going to make some explorations, and 
it was swept over the Livingstone Falls into a whirlpool. 
His death was a terrible shock, not only to Stanley, but to 
all his camp. The poor bearers from the east never seemed 
to recover from it. 

They had long passed Stanley Pool, whence the river 
runs southward, when, on July 9, they met a man dressed 



LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 143 

in European finery, and knew that they could not be far 
from European factories at the mouth of the Congo. But 
the poor natives of Zanzibar were almost worn out. The 
stock of goods, so long carried on their heads to use as 
money, was almost exhausted, and what they had left was 
not the kind of cloth valued in that part of the country. 
They were starving. They were dropping from exhaustion. 
Even the poor donkey who had come with Stanley from 
Nyangw^ fell by the wayside, and had to be abandoned to 
the care of natives. 

At last, on the 4th of August, they reached a little vil- 
lage, four days distant from Emboma, a Portuguese factory 
and settlement, ninety miles from the sea. There Stanley 
wrote a letter. Here it is : — 

Village of Nsanda, Aug. 7, 1877. 

To ANY Gentleman who speaks English 
AT Emboma. 

Dear Sir : I have arrived at this place from Zanzibar with 
115 souls, men, women, and children. We are now in a state of 
imminent starvation. We can buy nothing from the natives, for 
they laugh at our kinds of cloth, beads, and wire. There are no 
provisions in the country that may be purchased except on market 
days, and starving people cannot afford to wait for these markets. 
I therefore have made bold to despatch three of my young men, 
natives of Zanzibar, with a boy named Robert Ferusi of our English 
Mission at Zanzibar, with this letter, craving relief from you. I do 
not know you, but I am told there is an Englishman at Emboma, 
and as you are a Christian and a gentleman I beg you not to dis- 
regard my request. The boy Robert will be better able to describe 
our lone situation than I can tell you in this letter. We are in a 
state of the greatest distress, but if your supplies arrive in time 
we may be able to reach Emboma in four days. I want three 
hundred cloths, each four yards long, of such quality as the 
natives here trade with, but better than all would be ten or 
fifteen loads of rice or grain to fill their pinched bellies, as, even 
with the cloths, it would require time to purchase food, and 
starving people cannot wait. The supplies must arrive within 
two days, or I must have a fearful time of it amongst the dying. 
Of course I hold myself responsible for any expense you may 
incur in this business. What is wanted is immediate relief, and 



144 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

I pray you to use your utmost energies to forward it at once. 
For myself, if you have such little luxuries as tea, coffee, sugar, or 
biscuits by you, such as one man can easily carry, I beg you, on 
my own behalf, that you would send a small supply, and add to 
the great debt of gratitude due you on the timely arrival of the 
supplies for my people. Until that time I beg you to believe 

me, 

Sincerely yours, 

H. M. Stanley. 

P.S. — You may not know me by name. I therefore add I 
am the person that found Livingstone in 1871. 

Then Stanley called for volunteers to carry his letter 
under the guidance of the natives of the neighborhood. 
Three men sprang to their feet, with earnest protestations 
of zeal and devotion. The boy, too, was equally ready. 

So they departed. Those able were sent forth, with beads 
and cloth, to try to purchase food. At night they returned 
disheartened. All the supply they could get was three small 
sweet potatoes to each person. Groundnuts are the chief 
food in that region. Stanley says : — 

"Not one word of reproach issued from my starving 
people. They threw themselves on the ground with the 
indifference begotten of despair and misery. They did 
not fret nor bewail aloud the tortures of famine, nor with 
loud cries vent the anguish of their pinched bowels, but, 
with stony resignation, surrendered themselves to rest under 
the scanty shade of some dwarf acacias or sparse bush. 
. . . Suddenly the shrill voice of a little boy was heard 
screaming: * Oh! I see Ulidi and Kulcheki coming down 
the hill, and there are plenty of men following them ! ' " 

The faithful fellows had been deserted by their guides, 
but had pushed on, nevertheless, to reach Emboma (more 
usually called Boma). They had found the Englishman, 
and instantly the things desired, and far more than had 
been asked for, were sent. 

Here is Stanley's letter of acknowledgment sent back by 
the rice-carriers. One can see that it is written in an over- 
flow of excited feeling: — 



LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 1 45 

" Gentlemen : I have received your very welcome letter, but 
better than all, and more welcome, your supplies. I am unable 
to express just at present how grateful I feel. We are all so 
overjoyed and confused with our emotions at the sight of the 
stores exposed to our hungry eyes, — at the sight of the rice, and 
the fish, and the rum, — and for me wheaten bread, butter, sar- 
dines, jam, peaches, grapes, beer — (ye gods ! just think of it — 
three bottles of pale ale !) besides tea and sugar, — that we can- 
not restrain ourselves from falling to, and enjoying the sudden 
bounteous store ; and I beg you will charge our apparent want 
of thankfulness to our greediness. If we do not thank you suf- 
ficiently, rest assured we feel what volumes could not describe ! " 

The poor Zanzibar people as they ate, cried: "Verily we 
did not believe there was any end to the great river; but 
our master has found the sea, and his brothers ! " 

This was the last great incident in the journey. It was 
a mixed Portuguese and English house that had responded 
so generously to the cry for help. 

At Boma there arrived a steamer, the Kabinda^ which 
carried them on to St. Paul de Loanda, and thence they 
were taken in English ships round the Cape of Good Hope, 
to Zanzibar. 

On November 26, 1877, an English man-of-war landed 
them all at their own island. The returned negroes sprang 
from the boats, danced frantically on the sands, then, bend- 
ing down (for they were all Mohammedans), they rendered 
thanks to Allah. After that came the rapture of meeting 
with their friends, and, alas ! the pain of telling news of 
the dead. There had been thirteen women in the party, 
following their husbands, all faithful to the end; there were 
children, too, and even babies born during the long jour- 
ney. All received their due rewards, and the relations of 
the dead were not forgotten. 

The parting on December 13, 1877, when Stanley left for 
England in a steamer, was very touching. Already many 
had laid out their wealth to advantage, had bought little 
properties, and were, among their fellows in Zanzibar, great 
men. They were all on the shore to see their master depart; 
they insisted on carrying him in their arms through the surf 

L 



146 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

to the tender. They rowed after him to the steamer, and 
a deputation, at the last moment, came on board to say that 
none of them would leave Zanzibar till a letter came to^tell 
them that he who had brought them back to their homes 
had reached his own country in safety. "And, simple, 
generous souls," adds Stanley, "the chief object of the 
deputation was to say that if I wanted any help to reach 
my country they were ready to go with me ! " 

Stanley had not got out of the train which carried him 
from Folkestone to London, before he received a message 
from the King of the Belgians, who desired he should 
participate in the foundation of the Congo Free State. 
Weary and worn, he dreamed only of rest, but, after the 
long strain and drain upon his faculties, Swiss travelling, 
which he attempted alone, proved refreshing to him, 
and, by the beginning of 1879, he was again at Zanzibar, 
helping to fit out several expeditions for the exploration of 
Africa, and collecting a party of sixty-eight Zanzibaris (a 
large proportion of them being men of his old force) to go 
up the Congo with a flotilla of small steamers to found that 
Free State which should develop trade on a vast continent, 
introduce the work of missionaries, teach the use of money 
and good government, promote commerce, and, in the end, 
put down the slave trade. For these objects was the Free 
State founded by the Powers at the Congress of Berlin in 
1878. Stanley's mission was to go up the Congo from its 
mouth, establishing small trading stations along the river, 
with light-draught steamers to run between them. He was 
to work with other wills and other people; to many men 
a more trying task then any work that can be done alone. 

In May, 1879, he left Zanzibar, and by the middle of 
August was round the Cape and at the mouth of the Congo. 
Here he found his European subordinates, his stores, and 
his flotilla, and very unsatisfactory some of his steamboats 
and some of his subordinates proved. 

Ninety miles up the Congo they reached Boma, Stanley's 
harbor of refuge in his expedition two years before. Near 



LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 1 47 

it they made their first station. Their next point was Vivi, 
fifty miles further on, and here an important station was 
estabhshed at considerable expense. It was subsequently, 
however, abandoned, and the settlement moved somewhat 
higher up the river. Between Vivi and Isangila, the spot 
proposed as the next station, were the Livingstone Falls, 
and the only way to get the steamers round the Falls was 
to make a road, fifty- two miles long, over which to drag the 
small steamers by man-power. It took Stanley ten months 
to make this road, — "a rough corduroy road," he calls it. 

When his book, "The Founding of the Congo State," 
came out, all Germany, with the rest of the world, was eager 
to read it. In order to expedite its publication, the work 
was given to translators in several sections. A Baltimore 
gentleman, now connected with the Johns Hopkins, was 
then in Germany, and was requested by the publishers to 
look over the translation of one of these sections. The 
part of the book relating to Stanley's " corduroy road " 
between Vivi and Isangila had been given to a translator 
who trusted too much to his English and German dictionary. 
He had informed the public, on the best authority, that 
Stanley had constructed fifty-two miles of road with drab, 
ribbed, uncut, cotton velvet ! 

Stanley's exploits in road-making gave him his African 
name of the Rock Breaker. 

From Isangila there were eighty-eight miles of clear navi- 
gation to another cataract, where they estabhshed a station, 
and where the Baptists soon after settled with a very success- 
ful mission. From thence to Stanley Pool was ninety-five 
miles. 

By the close of December, 1881, Stanley Pool was reached, 
and thence their little steamer LAvant had a thousand 
miles of open water and an easterly course before she 
reached Stanley Falls. Before reaching Stanley Pool the 
expedition had made the beginning of the future city of 
Leopoldville. On its right bank the Congo, some distance 
below Stanley Falls, is joined by the great river Aruwimi, 



148 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

whence had swarmed the river pirates who had attacked 
Stanley and his boats so vigorously three years before. 
They seemed much less unfriendly to the steamer, but, as 
Stanley learned subsequently to his cost, their spirit was 
unsubdued. 

Though from Stanley Pool to Stanley Falls there is unin- 
terrupted open water, it is dotted with innumerable islands. 
At Stanley Falls the course of a steamer ascending the river 
becomes southerly ; thence to Nyangw^ where Stanley met 
Tippu Tib in 1876, is three hundred and eighty-five miles; 
from Nyangwe to Lake Mweru it is something over four hun- 
dred miles ; from Lake Mweru to Lake Bemba or Bangweolo 
(where Livingstone died), is two hundred and twenty miles ; 
and from Lake Bemba to its source the Congo for three 
hundred and sixty miles bears the name of Chambesi. In 
a few words, the Congo flows north about fifteen hundred 
miles, west about one thousand, and southerly again for five 
hundred miles. 

To Congo Free State all the countries that were repre- 
sented at the Berlin Conference may send missionaries and 
with it may trade freely. It is a combination of Europeans 
for self-protection and for protection to the natives. 

Several times, while engaged from 1879 ^^ 1887 in found- 
ing stations and superintending matters on the Congo, Stan- 
ley visited both Europe and America. Indeed, he was in 
New York when a telegram reached him asking him to com- 
mand an expedition for the relief of Emin Bey. 

Events seem tending (in 1895) to prove that expedition 
a great mistake. It was undertaken because the heart of 
England had been roused by the sad fate of Gordon, and 
people could not bear the thought that one of his lieu- 
tenants should perish for want of help, if help could be 
afforded him. It was prompted, too, by the report of Dr. 
Junker, a Russian traveller, who represented that Emin was 
in great peril from the advance of the forces of the Mahdi, 
and that he was very desirous of invoking English aid. We 
now know from Father Ohrwalder, and other sources, that 



LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY, 1 49 

the empire of the Khalifa Abdullah was too much distracted 
by fierce feuds among the various Arab tribes to make it 
possible to bring any sustained effort to bear on the Equa- 
torial Provinces of the Soudan. Raids were made, and 
spasmodic attempts at invasion, but Emin's real peril lay 
in the insubordination of his own Egyptian troops, made 
restless by the fall of Khartoum, and rumors that England 
had refused to extend her protectorate over the Soudan. 

Emin, or Edward Schnitzer, was born of Protestant par- 
ents in Germany. In 1888 he was about fifty years of age. 
He had been educated at Berlin as a physician, and then 
travelled in Armenia and Syria, acquiring a thorough knowl- 
edge of Mohammedanism and of many languages. In 1876 
he entered the Egyptian army, and became Gordon's medi- 
cal chief. By this time, his German name having proved 
too hard for Africans and Arabs to pronounce, he called 
himself Emin Effendi; an Effendi being a man who has 
knowledge, a gentleman in short, what esquire is to an 
Englishman. 

In 1878, during Gordon's government in Gondokoro, Emin 
was made governor of that province in the Eastern Soudan 
which borders on the Equator, and is washed by the waters 
of the Albert Nyanza. By 1882 he was succeeding wonder- 
fully in civilizing his people, besides protecting his province 
from slave-hunters. His heart seemed fixed upon procur- 
ing good government for the people over whom he was 
called to rule. 

He was a great naturaUst, and sent valuable collections 
home from time to time to the British Museum. But the 
troubles that ensued in the Soudan after 1882 disturbed his 
government, and the slave-traders after Gordon's death grew 
too powerful for him, yet he patiently pursued his work, 
dealing justly and wisely with his people, until he won their 
regard and confidence in a surprising degree. 

Wadelai was the stronghold of his government. Stanley, 
in 1887, when starting on the expedition for Emin's relief, 
said at a farewell dinner given him in London : — 



150 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

" I am preparing a new expedition into the heart of 
Africa, for the relief of an Egyptian official, who is now in 
somewhat straitened circumstances, environed by breadths 
of unknown territories populated by savage tribes. I go to 
relieve an officer who may be called the heir of Gordon, 
the last white chief in the Soudan. Years ago Gordon sent 
him and his officers and their families, up towards the 
sources of the Nile, and then came that terrible catastrophe 
which crushed out the heart of the Soudan, wiped out its 
civilization, and barred the way to his return. His ammu- 
nition is spent, and between himself and the sea no either 
hand are hordes of savages. We propose crossing the main- 
land, striking inland, and we shall not return till we reach 
Emin or perish." 

Our chapter upon Darkest Africa will tell how he fulfilled 
this pledge and carried out his programme. 

When Zebdhr was refused to Gordon, the latter pro- 
posed to take his river steamers at Khartoum, and, with his 
garrison, go up the Nile to Equatoria, and join Emin, but 
this the government of Mr. Gladstone refused to let him 
do, as Khartoum was about to be abandoned as a base of 
operations; besides, Gordon's plan, after joining Emin, 
had been to unite the Equatorial Provinces with Congo 
Free State, and England, at the beginning of Stanley's enter- 
prise, was somewhat jealous of Belgium. It was England 
who had worked so hard for years at opening Central Africa 
and suppressing the slave-trade. She did not like to have 
the consummation of her work taken out of her hands. An 
English writer, speaking on the subject of Gordon's pro- 
posal to join Emin, says: — 

"There is little doubt that if Gordon, with five steamers 
full of stores, had gone up the Nile to Emin and Lupton 
in 1884, these two provinces would have remained safe 
under the jurisdiction of King Leopold." 

Mighty rivers, still only partially explored, empty them- 
selves into the Congo. The Aruwimi at one point is hardly 
more than two hundred and fifty miles from Emin's juris- 



LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 151 

diction. But when the expedition was projected no one 
knew the terrors of the Dark Forest, or the many other 
difficulties and dangers which only Stanley's pluck and 
experience could have enabled his followers to over- 
come. 

The first settlement at Stanley Falls was attacked in 1887 ; 
it was rebuilt afterwards, and placed under the protection 
of Tippu Tib, who was to receive money and authority 
from Congo Free State, provided he would leave off slave- 
huntings 

To the credit of the missionary spirit, missions are 
springing up all over Central Africa, the most successful 
of which seem to be those of the Baptists and Roman 
Catholics. 

'Mtesa died in October, 1884, and was succeeded by a 
thorough heathen, who persecuted the missionaries and mas- 
sacred native Christians, many of whom endured as nobly 
to the end as any early Christian martyrs. But this story 
will be told in our chapter on Uganda,, 

Unhappily, while trade and missions find protection in 
Congo Free State, the traffic in liquor follows after, and 
its effects upon the natives have been terrible. Their own 
palm wine was barely intoxicating. Now the cry that rises 
over the whole country is for rum. By the laws that at first 
governed the Free State, no nation belonging to the league 
could be prevented from sending anything it pleased into 
the country. The King of the Belgians, however, fully 
aroused to the consequences of this liquor traffic, has done 
ail that the law enabled him to do to impose restrictions 
upon it. A few years since a debate was held in the British 
Parliament, in which Sir John Kennaway, Bart., M.P., 
urged that the government should endeavor to get united 
action on the subject by the Great Powers. The answer 
was that all European Powers were willing to forbid their 
subjects to export liquor to Africa, but that the United 
States would not (or could not) agree to join them, and, so 
long as one nation held out, nothing could be done. 



152 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

At the International Anti-Slavery Congress, however, held 
at Brussels in 1890, the European governments there repre- 
sented bound themselves to prohibit the importation of 
intoxicating liquors into any countries in Africa under 
their protection or " influence." It is as yet uncertain how 
far this prohibition can or will be carried out in Western 
Africa^ 



CHAPTER VI. 

DARKEST AFRICA. 

STANLEY was just commencing a lecturing tour, in 
1886, in the United States, when he received earnest 
requests, from the King of the Belgians and others, that he 
would command the Emin Relief Expedition. At that 
time, the great heart of the world was stirred by reports 
concerning Emin Bey, the sole surviving governor appointed 
by Gordon in Equatoria — a man who had held his prov- 
ince against savage tribes and Mahdists, since the fall of 
his great leader; who was adored, it was said, by all who 
served under him; who had brought peace and civiliza- 
tion to one dark spot on the earth's surface; who had 
troops under his command that he had trained and disci- 
plined; and who, it was reported, was now hard pushed by 
the Mahdists, and without ammunition. His territory lay 
about a thousand miles south of Khartoum, on the northern 
and western shores of the Albert Nyanza. It could be 
approached only from Zanzibar, a route occasionally taken 
by Arab traders, or up the Nile from Egypt; but this route 
was now impracticable, the Nile, between Emin' s province 
and Khartoum, being in the hands of the followers of the 
Mahdi. There remained, however, the possibility of an- 
other route as yet unknown. 

Africa might be crossed, for over two thousand miles, by 
following the course of the Congo to Stanley Falls ; thence 
the Aruwimi (a river whose shores were the abode of canni- 
bals) might lead to the neighborhood of Equatoria. Ex- 
plorers had heard of tangled forests, of cannibals, of pygmies, 

153 



154 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

and of poisoned arrows. Indeed, it was dread of these dan- 
gers that, in 1875, caused so many of Stanley's followers to 
desert him ere he crossed the Dark Continent. But since 
that time the belief in the leadership of white men had 
gained ground, and it was Stanley's opinion that the Congo 
would be the better route, provided a flotilla of whale-boats 
could be provided for the transportation of his men and 
stores. 

The Emin Relief Expedition had no connection with 
the English government. It was a private enterprise, got 
up by subscription, the Egyptian government giving ten 
thousand pounds to the cause. The German government 
refused to take any part in the matter, though appealed to 
on the ground that Emin (Edward Schnitzer) was born a 
German. They said that they considered him an Egyptian 
official. It was agreed that the thing to be most consid- 
ered was speed. Gordon had been lost for lack of speed. 
The Relief Committee and Stanley were resolved that not 
a moment should be lost. The words "too late," which 
closed the operations of the army sent to the relief of Gor- 
don, should not be written, if they could help it, at the 
close of the Relief Expedition for Emin. 

It must be confessed that every one totally mistook 
the needs, the position, and the character of Emin. He 
was known personally to no one in England, and the popu- 
lar imagination had painted him as a second Gordon. He 
was represented as short of ammunition, — he had plenty; 
he was believed to have great stores of ivory with which 
he would gladly pay part of the expenses of his deliverance, 
— he would do no such thing; his own letters and the 
representations of Junker, the Russian traveller, induced 
the belief that he was anxious to leave his province, — it 
proved, in the end, that he was only anxious to open com- 
munication with the civilized world; and as for the Egyp- 
tian officers and the "noble black troops" who were with 
him, — the Egyptians were the scum of the earth, mostly 
sent to Equatoria as a punishment for their share in Arabi's 




EMIN PASHA. 



DARKEST AFRICA. 



155 



rebellion or as actual criminals. The majority of them did 
not want to go back to Egypt and civilization, where they 
might meet with little toleration, and even be called to 
account for their crimes. At the very moment Stanley 
was setting forth on his expedition, half the army headed 
by these officers was in rebellion against Emin. The 
Mahdists were in possession of Bahr Gazal, a province to 
the northwest of his possessions, and Lupton, its English 
governor, was a captive at Omdurman. Between the Albert 
and Victoria Nyanzas, south of Emin's jurisdiction, were 
the two kingdoms of Unyoro and Uganda. 'Mtesa, king 
of Uganda, was now dead. Missionaries had been sent, 
according to his desire, to his court, the principal of whom 
was a Scotchman, named Mackay, who had the common 
sense combined with pious zeal of Livingstone. 'Mtesa 
had been succeeded by his ferocious son, Mwanga, who 
hated alike Christians and Europeans. Subsequently Mac- 
kay and other missionaries were driven from his court, 
native Christians were martyred, Bishop Hannington, on his 
journey, slain, and Mwanga, for a time, declared himself 
a Mohammedan. 

Unyoro was a kingdom bordering on the southern shore 
of the Albert Nyanza. It was governed by Kabba Rega, a 
chief of some ability, but of more savage cunning and over- 
weening self-importance. To his mind no potentate on the 
earth could be his equal, and he was very desirous to crush 
Emin, and make himself master of his territory; meanwhile 
he would assist him or oppose him according to what might 
seem most to his own advantage. 

Stanley, on finding that to wait for the whale-boats that 
be had demanded to be built would cause a long delay, 
decided to trust to steam navigation as far as Stanley Falls 
in boats already on the Congo. This was a sore mistake, 
and led to all the misfortunes of the expedition. He had 
at first insisted on the necessity of the whale-boats, remem- 
bering how he had embarked his expedition eight years be- 
fore in the Lady Alice and canoes, on the waters of the Congo. 



156 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

But the Relief Association's means were limited, time 
pressed, and Stanley gave up the point he had at first con- 
sidered so important. 

Officers were engaged in England to accompany the expe- 
dition. First, Major Barttelot, recommended by Sir Garnet 
Wolseley. He had been an officer in the 7th Fusileers, had 
served with credit and distinction in India and the Soudan, 
and was a favorite with all his brother officers; but Stanley, 
after he had engaged him, learned that his reputation in the 
army was that, with all his high qualities, he had an ungov- 
ernable and nervous temper, and had notoriously no liking 
for black men, whom he mistrusted and despised. This 
had been tested when he served in the Soudan, in command 
of a black regiment. Stanley would gladly have broken the 
engagement when these things came to his knowledge, but 
the contract was made, and the thing went on. Number 
two was Lieutenant Grant Stairs, of the Royal Engineers. 
Number three was Mr. Rose Troup, who had already done 
good service on the Congo, and was familiar with the 
language of Zanzibar. Number four was a cavalry officer 
from the English army. Captain Nelson, who had distin- 
guished himself in the Zulu campaign. Number five was 
J. Mounteney Jephson, who came near being rejected as 
too much of a dude, but was finally accepted, and lived 
to prove how much even Stanley might be mistaken in 
appearances. Number six was Mr. James Jameson, a 
married man, who joined the expedition more in the 
hope of having opportunities for artist work and for 
making collections in natural history, than because he 
felt any particular interest in its objects. He had already 
travelled in South Africa, and was willing to subscribe 
one thousand pounds to the expenses of the expedi- 
tion, if he might have the privilege of joining it. Num- 
ber seven was Mr. William Bonny, who was willing to 
serve the expedition in any capacity. 

The party was afterwards augmented by two recruits, 
Mr. Herbert Ward, who was travelling on the Congo, and 



DARKEST AFRICA. 1 57 

an engineer, Mr. Walker, who was to go no further than 
Stanley Falls. " All these signed a paper, pledging them to 
place themselves under the command of Mr. Stanley, and 
to perform any duty he might assign them; they also bound 
themselves to serve him loyally and devotedly; to obey all 
his orders; and to follow him by whatsoever route he might 
choose." They were in return to receive no pay, only the 
satisfaction of forming part of so adventurous an expedi- 
tion. 

A doctor had been engaged, but he dropped off at the 
last moment, and at Alexandria Stanley procured the ser- 
vices of Dr. Parke, who had served with the expeditionary 
force sent to relieve Gordon, and at the time of his engage- 
ment was employed by the Government in a medical capa- 
city at Alexandria. 

All these men were young, very handsome (if we judge 
them by their photographs), and were gentlemen by birth 
and breeding. 

Tewfik, the Khedive of Egypt, furnished Stanley with 
letters to Emin, making him a pasha instead of a bey, and 
telling him that, having resolved to abandon all provinces 
south of Egypt, he released him from his allegiance as an 
Egyptian official; that he and his Egyptian subordinates 
could do as they pleased; — if they returned with Stanley, 
the Egyptian government would give them back pay and 
promotion; but if they decided to remain in Equatoria they 
must consider all connection broken off between themselves 
and the Egyptian government. 

On February 25, 1887, the whole expedition started by 
steamers from Zanzibar to go round the Cape of Good Hope 
to the mouth of the Congo. The men were Nubian soldiers 
{i.e. Soudanese), a small party of Somalis, and six hundred 
and twenty-three Zanzibaris. On board was also Tippu 
Tib with his harem and followers, to the number of sixty. 
Tippu was going up the Congo to Stanley Falls, to be made 
governor of the eastern part of the Free State, under an 
engagement that, in consideration of a salary of thirty 



158 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

pounds a month, he would not engage in slave-trading. 
Stanley, believing that Emin would like to bring away his 
ivory, wanted Tippu to consent to furnish him a large body 
of carriers to transport the ammunition, etc., that the ex- 
pedition was conveying to Equatoria, and to bring back the 
tusks on the return journey. 

The expedition reached the mouth of the Congo March 
19, 1887. There Stanley found the steamers of the Congo 
Free State nearly all out of condition, and was obliged 
to march a large portion of his column up to Stanley 
Pool. 

After passing Stanley Pool there was more difficulty about 
the steamers; but finally, by chartering two missionary 
steamers, the Henry Reed and the Peace; having one 
steamer, the Stanley, belonging to Congo Free State ; and 
attaching some large canoes to each of the steamers, the 
party succeeded in making one thousand miles of jour- 
ney from Stanley Pool to Stanley Falls; or rather, to the 
mouth of the Aruwimi river. Thence Tippu Tib and his 
party were sent to their destination, with the understanding 
that he was to collect six hundred carriers for a rear column 
to be left behind with a number of loads, for the most part 
destined for Emin. These loads, with the rear column, 
were to be left in an entrenched camp at Yambuya. 

Here are the rules Stanley issued to his officers at the 
beginning of the expedition : — 

'^For trivial offences a slight corporal punishment can be 
inflicted, but this as seldom as possible. Officers will exercise 
a proper discretion in the matter, and avoid irritating their men 
by being too exacting and unnecessarily fussy. It has been 
usual with me to be greatly forbearing, allowing three pardons 
for one punishment. Officers should endeavor to remember that 
the men's labor is severe ; their burthens are heavy ; the climate 
hot ; their rations poor and scanty. Under such conditions 
human nature becomes soon irritable ; therefore punishments 
should be judicious, so as to prevent straining the patience of 
the men. Nevertheless discipline must be taught, and where 
necessary enforced, for the general good of the expedition." 



DARKEST AFRICA. 



159 



We must remember that the steamers on the Congo could 
not move very rapidly, even had the navigation been plain 
sailing, as every night they had to draw up to the shore 
while the men cut wood for the next day's firing. 

During the journey up the Congo to the Aruwimi the 
sickness had become very great. It is piteous to read Dr. 
Parke's account of men, white and black (himself among 
the number), suffering with malarial fever, but still strug- 
gling to move on. Stairs, indeed, was so ill that his life 
was despaired of, and Stanley, at one time, was little bet- 
ter. The only thing that kept them up, apparently, was 
enormous doses of quinine, twenty-four grains at once. 

At Yambuya, as they ascended the Aruwimi, they took 
possession of a village on an eminence, the inhabitants of 
which had been hostile to them; and founded an entrenched 
camp, on what, in comparison with the swamps around 
them, seemed to be a healthy situation. 

On the voyage up the Congo, good feeling had not 
always prevailed among the officers, either as regarded 
each other or their commander. 

Barttelot, an English officer and gentleman, became very 
restive under the peremptory orders of a leader who was a 
civilian, and by birth greatly his inferior. Stanley's one 
object was to execute his mission, — to bring relief to Emin 
as speedily as possible, that he might not perish like Gor- 
don- Alas ! had he only been able to know that Emin was 
serenely indifferent to his coming ! 

A party had been left down the river at a place called 
Bolobo, where many loads of goods had also been deposited 
which the steamer Stanley was to go back and bring on to 
Yambuya. With these goods were to come on Messrs. 
Bonny, Troup, and Herbert Ward. 

Stanley decided to leave Major Barttelot in command at 
Yambuya, with orders, when the Stanley brought up Troup, 
Bonny, Ward, and company, to get the six hundred carriers 
from Tippu Tib, and to move forward on a road that would 
be marked out for them by the advance column. Major 



l6o EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

Barttelot, in virtue of his military rank, could not have been 
put under any other officer in the expedition. 

Of the horrors that attended the wreck of the rear col- 
umn I will tell later, but briefly; and will here give a 
narrative in an abridged form as Dr. Parke entered it in 
his own note-book, after Bonny had returned with the Stan- 
ley to Fort Bodo. I shall make no comments of my own upon 
it, believing that it will come best from Dr. Parke, whose 
impartiality, loyalty, and truthfulness no one can question. 

The narrative of the journey through Darkest Africa 
divides itself, as it were, into ten chapters. 
I. The journey to Yambuya. 

II. Stanley's journey through the Dark Forest to Lake 
Albert. 

III. His return to Fort Bodo, not having found Emin. 

IV. The horrible story of Nelson at Starvation camp, 
and Nelson and Parke when hostages in the 
hands of the Manyuema. 
V. Jephson's experiences with Emin. 

VI. Stanley's journey back to the Rear Column. 
VII. The story of the Rear Column. 
VIII. The life of those left at Fort Bodo. 

IX. Stanley's relations with Emin. 
X. The journey across East Africa to Zanzibar. 

It is, of course, impossible, in the space that can be 
devoted to this subject, to treat of these ten subjects at 
any length. Thus far we have only got the expedition to 
Yambuya. We will now take up the second division, and 
relate how Stanley and the advance pushed into the impen- 
etrable forest of Central Africa. 

The expedition left Yambuya June 28, 1887, Stanley 
commanding personally a division of one hundred and 
six men, but Parke was with him in charge of them; Stairs 
had eighty-eight men assigned him; Nelson eighty-eight, 
and Jephson eighty-eight, making three hundred and seventy 
in all. Of course these were the best men of the expedi- 
tion, as they were to force a way for the rest to follow 



DARKEST AFRICA. l6l 

through unknown lands. Stairs was so ill, from African 
fever, that he had to be carried in a hammock slung on a 
pole. Dr. Parke says : — 

" We bade good-bye to Barttelot and Jameson, both of 
whom were very gloomy at the idea of being left behind. 
Barttelot's last words to me were, that he would not remain 
a day after the rest of the loads and men came up from 
Bolobo. So we marched on, proceeding directly east to 
the southern extremity of the Albert Nyanza." 

The record of this journey is almost unvarying. It is 
made up of poisoned arrows, lost loads, horrible insects, 
desertions, fevers, spikes poisoned and stuck in the ground 
to lame men's feet, lost clothing, heavy drenching rains, 
unfriendly natives, starvation all the time, and pain and 
weariness. 

When we remember how the young Englishmen of the 
expedition had embarked on it buoyant and eager, full of 
bright hopes and the spirit of adventure, the contrast between 
the exultation they started with, and the dismal reality they 
found as they went on, seems very terrible. It appears 
marvellous how men could endure so much, and yet " abate 
no jot of heart or hope, but steer right onward." Their 
clothes were never dry, no ray of sunshine ever penetrated 
the darkness of the forest. The light was never more than 
that which prevails in London on a foggy day. The paths 
were occasionally elephant tracks, or native paths, but these 
last were dangerous, because the savages had dotted them 
with poisoned spikes. Information seemed to travel among 
the natives rapidly and mysteriously, as it used to do during 
our Civil War among the negroes; or among Hindoos in 
the Mutiny. One great difficulty was crossing rivers, many 
of which, some strong and broad, emptied into the Aruwimi. 
Had Stanley and his officers known all that they knew sub- 
sequently, and directed their course northeast by one of 
these rivers, they would have found a country that had 
been travelled by Casati (Emin's lieutenant), free from 
forest, and with plenty of food. But of this they knew 

M 



1 62 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

nothing. Steadily towards the east they held their way. 
They were frequently without a mouthful of food for any 
of the party. When they got any it was seldom more than 
the semi-poisonous manioc, bananas, or fungi. Their little 
boat, the Advance^ was carried in sections, by forty men, 
and put together whenever it was possible to launch her on 
the Aruwimi. 

At length, on October 6, 1887, at a spot in the forest near 
the river Ituri, it was decided to leave fifty-two sick men 
with Captain Nelson, who was also sick, and eighty-one 
loads which the famine-stricken men were too enfeebled to 
carry. The rest were to push on to reach an Arab settle- 
ment said to be in advance of them. 

It was dreadful to abandon sick comrades, but the expedi- 
tion had been organized to relieve Emin, who was anxiously 
awaiting succor — as was supposed. 

Parke records in his journal the next day, after telling of 
the pangs of parting, — 

" We are now living on our only all, viz. two teaspoonfuls 
of arrowroot twice a day, supplemented by fungoids and 
amoma, fruit, etc. . . . Our philanthropic pilgrimage to 
help Emin is certainly being carried out with outward and 
visible signs of an inward and spiritual self-denial, which 
cannot, I venture to think, be very far surpassed in history. 
I wonder whether the Crusaders had as rough a time of it?" 

They tried to fish sometimes, but very unsuccessfully. 

After two weeks of such journeying from the place where 
they had left poor Nelson and his sick men, they reached 
the camp of the ivory hunters and iVrab slave-traders. But 
alas ! once there among these Manyuema they were in 
fact prisoners. The Manyuema ivory hunters are slaves to 
Arab slaves, " and their habits," adds Parke, " are those of 
pigs." They seemed to be of no particular tribe, but to 
have been natives, and the sons of natives, captured by 
slave-hunters, and turned into Mohammedans and soldiers 
by their masters. Many of the chiefs who commanded 
them were themselves slaves to rich Zanzibari Arabs. 



DARKEST AFRICA. 1 63 

Stanley and his party had been a week in their camp 
before they could be persuaded to supply couriers to Jeph- 
son, who was to transport food to Nelson at Starvation 
camp, and bring back the loads that had there been aban- 
doned. It was also determined that Parke, with twenty- 
six sick Zanzibaris, should be left at the Manyuema camp, 
and Stanley, on the morning of October 27, marched 
away, still hurrying on to Emin, while Jephson went back to 
find Nelson. Parke, left among the Manyuema with his 
sick men, says : — 

" I am now left here with twenty-nine starved Zanzibaris 
(one or two only are really ill), till I am ransomed by the 
arrival of cloth brought up by the rear column to pay for 
food our column had used. I have in my charge the boat, 
the rifles, many boxes of ammunition, and other loads. Last 
night Mr. Stanley gave Ismailia his gold watch and chain as 
a pledge for the payment of some guides he was taking 
with him." 

The watch was redeemed eight months after (IsraaiHa 
complained it had died while he had it), and Stanley pre- 
sented it to Parke with an inscription. 

Under date of October 28 Parke again writes in his jour- 
nal : — 

" A dismal prospect this morning ! Here am I left alone 
at the mercy of these savages. My Zanzibaris are the most 
sickening sight I ever saw, poor creatures, hardly able to 
crawl. Our leader certainly seems rather hard j still I must 
confess I do not see how else he could have dealt with these 
barbarous people, — how he has made two ends meet is a 
mystery. He is difl'erent from any other man. He will 
never be found to sacrifice all to save one ; his policy is 
rather to sacrifice one and save the remainder." 

Of his officers at this time Stanley himself says : — 

" They had borne their privations with the spirit ascribed 
by Octavius to Antony. They fed on the flat-wood beans of 
the forest, on the acid wild fruit, and strange fungi, with the 
smihng content of Sybarites at a feast. Yet one of them 



1 64 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

(Jephson) had paid one thousand pounds for this poor privi- 
lege, and came near being thought too dainty to endure 
African life. They had been a living example to our dark 
followers, who were encouraged by the bright, hopeful looks 
our officers wore under our many afflictions." 

On November 14, 1887, the main body reached a village 
called Ibwiri, where they found plenty of food, and were 
rejoiced by the arrival of Jephson, who had found Nelson at 
the very verge of death by starvation, and had brought him 
and his men to the Manyuema camp, where they remained 
till three months later, when Stairs came back to rescue 
them. 

On November 29, one month after leaving Parke behind 
in the camp of the Manyuema, Stanley's party reached a 
mountain summit, whence they saw a wide plain with graz- 
ing herds of cattle. They were out of the dreadful forest. 
After one hundred and eighty-six days of twilight, they once 
more beheld the sun. 

The men crowded round their leader with cries of " It 
is true ! It is no hoax ! Can it be possible that we have 
reached the end of the forest hell? " 

There was plenty to eat at last. They beheld large banana 
plantations, abundance of game, and thriving villages ; but 
there seemed great hostility among the natives, who took them 
for Manyuema. Better relations, however, were soon estab- 
lished, and the white men learned that they were five days 
march from the Albert Nyanza. This was not reached, how- 
ever, until after a sharp fight with another tribe. 

On December 13, 1887, from a lofty mountain terrace they 
gazed down on the land of Unyoro, governed by the great 
king Kabba Rega ; they beheld also the southern shores of 
the Albert Nyanza. But there was no Emin at the trysting 
place, — no news of him anywhere. The expedition was sur- 
rounded by hostile natives. Stanley dreaded lest he should 
expend all his ammunition. No boats -from Emin awaited him 
on the lake, no preparations had been made to receive him. 
He could get no canoes. It was decided to go back, and 



DARKEST AFRICA, 1 65 

get the Advance^ now with Parke and Nelson in the Man- 
yuema camp. They therefore resolved to return into the 
forest, and retrace their steps to Ibwiri. They did so, and 
reached Ibwiri December 29. Here they built a fort, and 
formed an entrenched camp, calling the place Fort Bodo, 
which means the Fort of Peace. The country around Ibwiri, 
though in the midst of the forest, had been cleared, and 
there were extensive banana plantations. 

Terrible was Stanley's disappointment, and that of his 
party, at the apparent apathy of Emin, after their hazard- 
ous and hurried march to bring succor to a governor who 
had cried to the world (or was believed to have done so), 
" Help us quickly, or we perish ! " And Emin knew that 
the expedition was coming; knew to what point it would 
be directed, and had himself written, " We expect Stanley 
will reach the Albert Nyanza about December 15." 

The first thing to be done after reaching Ibwiri was to 
rescue Parke and Nelson with their loads, their followers, 
their ammunition, the Maxim gun, and the boat Advance, 
from the hands of the Manyuema. So, while some set to 
work to build Fort Bodo, Stairs, with ninety-eight men, set 
out to find Parke and Nelson, his orders being, also, if he 
met Barttelot and the Rear Column advancing, to lend them 
all possible assistance. 

We left Dr. Parke in the Manyuema camp with his 
twenty-six Zanzibaris, gazing sadly at the party of Stanley 
marching away from him on October 27, 1887. 

His record is one of the most melancholy in the whole sad 
story. The Manyuema appear to have been anxious that he 
should die of famine, in order that they might get posses- 
sion of Emin's boxes. Every article of personal property 
from himself or from his people they soon acquired in 
exchange for food. The tricks and the extortions of the 
Manyuema were barefaced frauds, but there was no way of 
self-defense left for Parke, or his men, who were virtually 
prisoners. 

On November 2 news was brought in from Starvation 



1 66 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

camp that Nelson was still alive, but of the fifty-two liv- 
ing skeletons who had been left, only five remained with 
him. The next day Jephson came into the Manyuema 
camp with Nelson slowly following. 

Jephson described Starvation camp as strewn with dead 
bodies, but not all those missing were dead. Thirty had 
deserted, and had gone down the river. On their way they 
spread news, which in time reached Tippu Tib and Bart- 
telot, of the wreck of the expedition. 

The appearance of poor Nelson was heart-breaking. The 
inhospitable Manyuema would give no food to Jephson' s 
followers, so, having deposited Nelson and the remnant of 
his men from Starvation camp with Parke among the slave- 
dealers, Jephson set oH at once with his own people on their 
return to Mr. Stanley. They came up with him on Novem- 
ber 14, in time to proceed with him to the Albert Nyanza. 

Meantime the state of Parke and Nelson was deplorable. 
Every device was' practised by the Arabs to decoy them 
away from the goods they had in charge. They lived some 
days on a box of camphorated chalk belonging to Nel- 
son, pinches of which, as the Arabs love perfumes, they 
exchanged for food, and sometimes the doctor got a chicken 
or a few ears of corn for a fee. 

When Stanley left Parke he had said that relief would 
reach him in three months, but even if this promise should 
be fulfilled, three months seemed an interminable time. 

The record of these days of captivity in Parke's journal 
is almost entirely concerning their anxiety for food. The 
reader who may never have realized the urgency of this prime 
want of man, will learn, as he reads Parke's diary, what 
must be the temptations and the pangs of hunger. Day 
after day was spent in just warding off death from famine. 
Parke himself became very ill, and had to teach Nelson 
how to perform on him a surgical operation, which, of 
course, was more like butchery than surgery. 

At last Kilonga Longa, the head Arab, arrived, and for a 
few days the condition of the poor fellows slightly improved. 



DARKEST AFRICA. 1 6/ 

He could not stand the odors in the old camp, and burnt 
it down and built a new one. Leaves and poles form the 
huts of these people, so new habitations are easily con- 
structed. 

Christmas Day arrived, and they managed to get a bit of 
goat's flesh for their dinner. On New Year's day, 1888, 
they had only two onions and a cup of rice among five of 
them; but, had they known it, relief was already on its way 
from Fort Bodo. On January 25, as Parke was trying to 
mend a broken rifle for Kilonga Longa, hoping for some 
small pay in food, a man came running in to say that a 
white man was in sight. It was Stairs, "at the head," says 
Parke, "of the finest-looking fat, muscular, glossy-skinned 
men I ever saw, the same men who had left us with skele- 
ton forms three months ago (less two days). They cheered, 
and we cheered. It was a moment of excitement; a reprieve 
from the death sentence we had so long felt pressing over 
and around us." 

Great was the surprise of Dr. Parke and Captain Nelson 
to hear that, although Stanley had been to the Albert Nyan- 
za, he was without news of Emin. "Many a time," says 
Dr. Parke, " I had said to Nelson that Stanley would rescue 
us within three months, but he was not so sanguine." 

The next day, after a not unfriendly leave-taking with 
Kilonga Longa, the whole party joyfully marched away 
from the 'camp of the Manyuema, but Nelson and Parke 
were so lame and feeble that they kept up with Stairs's 
men with difficulty. They reached Fort Bodo, however, 
on February 8, in thirteen days, having suffered from want 
of food even on this journey. 

They found everybody busy about the Fort, which Stanley 
was anxious to leave in good order, while he went, for the 
second time, to the Albert Nyanza, taking with him the boat 
and Jephson. Stairs, meantime, was to go back two hun- 
dred miles to pick up fifty-two men who had been left at 
another Arab camp at Ugarrowa; he was also to send car- 
riers to Barttelot with letters. Stanley expected to be 



1 68 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

absent at the lake about four months, but he was taken very 
ill, and it was more than five weeks before he was fit to start 
on his expedition. He was carried in a litter, and Parke, to 
his great satisfaction, went with him. Nelson remained at 
Fort Bodo in command. On approaching the lake, about 
April 15, 1888, they found the king of that district, Mazam- 
boni, anxious to swear friendship with them, and they heard 
that two white men had been seen on the lake, whom they 
concluded to have been Emin and Casati. The next day 
they heard that a letter from Emin was waiting Mr. Stan- 
ley at Kavallis. This letter was brought wrapped up in the 
sham morocco that the English call "American cloth." It 
was signed, "Doctor Emin„" It requested Stanley to stay 
at Kavallis, and Emin would come to him when he heard 
of his arrival. It also was enclosed in a small scrap of a 
London "Times" of very ancient date, but no newspaper 
was ever so welcome to those who received it. Emin told 
of the ill-treatment of his envoy, Casati, by Kabba Rega, 
king of Unyoro, — an episode in our story which, for want 
of space, I must omit. 

On April 19, 1888, the expedition reached Kavallis, and 
two days later the little Advance was launched upon the 
waters of the great Albert Nyanza. When this was done, 
Jephson, with a picked crew, set out to navigate the lake in 
search of Emin, who was now Emin Pasha. 

On Sunday, April 29, a letter from Jephson informed 
Mr. Stanley that Emin was on the lake with two steamers. 
Before long they came in sight, and soon Emin and Casati 
were with the relief party. 

Parke describes the pasha as a short man, five feet seven. 
He wore a clean white shirt and a spotless coat and trous- 
ers, a fact worthy of note to the poor fellows who had had 
but one suit of clothes day and night during the months 
they had been journeying to aid him. His health was 
drunk in champagne brought from England for that pur- 
pose, and, in reply, he said that he could scarcely express 
his thanks to the English for sending him relief at so much 



DARKEST AFRICA. 1 69 

cost and trouble; but he added that he did not know if he 
should care to come out now, after doing so much work in 
the province, and having everything at that time in perfect 
order. On which Dr. Parke writes : — 1 

" We all hope that Emin Pasha may make up his mind to 
come out with us. However, Mr. Stanley pointedly told 
him that our object in coming was to bring him relief in 
ammunition, etc., and not to bring him out. As we have 
hardly enough men to enable us to push our way through 
to Zanzibar without the responsibility of looking after Emin 
and all his people, our duty will be finished when we have 
handed over the ammunition, which was what he required 
to protect himself." 

Emin gave many presents to the men and officers; the 
most acceptable being cloth of native manufacture to make 
the Englishmen some clothes. "For," says Parke, "we 
are all in rags, and look like brigands near the man we 
have come to rescue, — the clean, fresh, well-dressed pasha. 
His men, too, were in spotless uniforms." A week later 
Parke says : " It is too awful to think of going back all the 
way for Barttelot — it means about ten months more in the 
forest." 

Yet they were anxious to be on the move again, for the 
shores of the Albert Nyanza were not the Garden of Eden 
they had pictured them, and Jephson and Parke suffered 
much from fever. The air, too, was very cold. During 
these weeks of stay in the pasha's company, the officers of 
the expedition began to perceive that Emin had not supreme 
authority among his followers, and was tossed about by every 
opposing wind of counsel. 

On May 22, Stanley started again to look after his rear 
column. He had one hundred and twenty-two Zanzibaris 
and one hundred and thirty men furnished by Emin, of a 
tribe called Madis. "We will probably," says Parke, "be 
some months away." And he adds: "The pasha is most 
kind and considerate, thinking of everything to make us 
comfortable." 



170 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

The party, however, waited for the one hundred and 
thirty promised carriers, and did not start till May 26, the 
very day on which Barttelot moved his wretched followers 
from the camp at Yambuya to Banalya. 

The story of Stanley's return march to Fort Bodo is much 
the old story, except that food was not lacking and the Madi 
carriers deserted whenever they could. 

At Fort Bodo, which they reached on the 8th of June, 
they found Nelson and Stairs, with plenty of sick men for 
Dr. Parke to attend to. A week later Stanley started again 
on his fearfully long march, leaving Stairs commander at 
Fort Bodo, Nelson second in command, and Dr. Parke in 
charge of the sick. I have before me two accounts of life 
at Fort Bodo, one by Parke, the other by Jephson, but, as I 
have quoted much from Parke I will now turn to Jephson. 

The fort was built on the site of the village called Ibwiri, 
which had been deserted by its inhabitants on the approach 
of the expedition. The village had been surrounded by 
banana plantations. Its site was a large clearing in the 
midst of the dense forest. One o-f the first events, after 
Stanley marched away to find his rear column, was the 
death of his faithful little fox-terrier. Randy, who had fol- 
lowed him in all his wanderings, and who died of grief at 
being left behind. 

As the Zanzibaris worked in the sun they, like other 
negroes, sang songs, one man improvising, the others join- 
ing in the chorus. Here is one verse of a favorite ditty, 
reminding us of our own plantation songs : — 

" We reached the open country — 
{Chorus) Go to the fields and hoe! 

There were cattle and goats in plenty — 
Go to the fields and hoe! 

We ate, we slept till dawn of day, 
And we laughed and sang like boys at play, 
When we came to this place where now we say 
Go to the fields and hoe! " 

There was a great deal of hoeing to be done, for the 



DARKEST AFRICA, I /I 

officers ordered fields of corn to be planted round the fort, 
and beans, and other vegetables. It was well they did so, 
for before Stanley returned with the remnant of the Rear 
Column, the forest demon of starvation had more than 
once stared them in the face, " Never," says Jephson, " did 
corn fields look to us so green and lovely as those we had 
planted ourselves." 

Sunday at the fort was a day of rest, welcome to both 
whites and Zanzibaris, and, ordinary work being suspended, 
the officers would mend their clothes, or make boots of 
smoked buffalo hide, which were sorely needed. The Zan- 
zibaris loved stories, and when Stanley was at the fort would 
assemble round him in the evenings to hear of Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob; or even of Aladdin from the "Arabian 
Nights." But their favorite story was that of Joseph and 
his brethren. They would listen to it with breathless 
interest, and when it came to the meeting of Joseph with 
his aged father, tears would start to their eyes, they would 
shake their heads sadly, thinking of their homes and of 
the old people in distant Zanzibar. 

Jephson grows quite eloquent over his one needle. He 
had made it by filing off the knob at the end of a brass 
bodkin. "It has sewn, I suppose," he says, "more ragged 
clothes than any other needle in the world, and has cer- 
tainly helped to manufacture the strangest-looking shoes." 

But this picture is idyllic, and the general life at Fort 
Bodo was weariness, hard work, and privation. 

To act, to suffer, may be nobly great, 
But nature's mightiest effort is to wait. 

Like children counting the days to their Christmas holi- 
days they kept a strict account of how many days must 
elapse before the hour of Stanley's promised return; for 
punctuality to an appointment, even in the heart of Africa, 
was a stern duty with Stanley. Everything in the fort was 
made ready for Emin, who every day they fancied might 
arrive with Jephson, who was with him at Wadelai while 
Stanley was away in search of the rear guard. 



1/2 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY, 

"From what I have seen of Africa in this expedition," 
writes poor Parke from his sick bed, "it seems to offer 
nothing but fatigue, famine, and farming." 

Occasionally they captured pygmies, for the forest con- 
tained many of these little people, who, it appears, do not 
live in the "open," and are never agriculturists, but are 
skilful hunters, adding to their dietary the bananas and 
corn they can steal from other tribes. 

At the close of October, Dr. Parke writes : — 

"My mind is continually running on the subject of good 
dinners. We three white men gather together at my house 
every evening to have a general chat, but before five 
minutes is passed food is sure to have become the central 
topic of conversation ! " 

All these weary months the poor fellows kept speculating 
on how Emin might be planning to co-operate with them, or 
to help them. They believed him to be in some trouble, 
but it never entered their minds that in spite of his kind- 
ness of heart he was perfectly indifferent to them. The 
truth was that the presence of the expedition was an annoy- 
ance and embarrassment to Emin. He would have given 
a great deal had it never been undertaken. Perhaps the 
English people may yet find reason to wish he had been 
let alone. 

On December 14, 1888, Parke writes : — 

" On this day twelvemonth Mr. Stanley arrived at the 
Albert Nyanza for the first time. We may have still twelve 
months of these peregrinations before us, and all because 
Emin Pasha did not come in his steamer to meet us. He 
might have done so, for he had been informed by letters 
from Zanzibar that we should arrive on the 14th ; so that 
there was really no excuse for his non-appearance. He 
might have come down to warn the natives, and I suppose 
would have done so had he had control over his men." 

On December 20, as Parke was assuring a desponding Zan- 
zibari that if Stanley had said he would return by Christgias, 
he would certainly appear, shots were heard in the forest, and 



DARKE S T AFRICA. 1 7 3 

Stanley with his advance guard was at hand. " He looked 
careworn and ragged to an extreme degree, "" says the doc- 
tor, " and I never felt so forcibly how much the man was 
sacrificing to a terribly heavy duty which he had imposed, 
upon himself. I had never before so fully beheved in Stan- 
ley's unflinching earnestness of purpose and unswerving 
sense of duty." 

We turn now to the sad history of the Rear Column, 
which Stanley had gone alone with his party of Zanzibaris 
and Madis to meet, as he hoped, on its way to join him. 

The history of this unhappy Rear Column I will abridge 
from Dr. Parke's account of it, written down in his journal 
on the arrival of Stanley and his party at Fort Bodo, and 
collected from the talk of Bonny and the other survivors, 
before the pros and cons of the disastrous story had been 
taken up by the press. I will preface it by what Jephson 
says : — 

'* Lord Beaconsfield has cynically defined morality as a 
tissue to the growth of which a tropical climate is unfavor- 
able : and Gordon many times has said that no European 
should be away from Europe in the Orient or in the tropical 
countries for more than three years, otherwise his home 
sense of morality becomes blunted." 

We may consider also what Dr. Parke says of his own 
experience and Nelson'Sy while in the camp of the Manyu- 
ema, that the effect of the African fever is to produce 
nervous irritability and bad temper. Barttelot had not an 
even temper at the best of times. He was known to dislike 
blacks. His intercourse with them in the Soudan had been 
when they were under the discipline of private soldiers, and 
he ended by particularly disliking the Zanzibaris, as being 
Stanley's favorites. With these prefatory observations I will 
turn to Dr. Parke's narrative without any remarks of my 
own. 

We left Major Barttelot and Mr. Jameson in their en- 
trenched camp at Yambuya, exceedingly disappointed that 
they were to be left there, while others marched to meet 



174 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

Emin in his province of Equatoria; they, had joined the 
expedition for the sake of adventure, and also on Jameson's 
part for the specimens in natural history, and the sketches 
he hoped to bring home. Their orders were to wait until 
the Stanley brought up Ward, Troup, and Bonny, with their 
contingent, and then if they got the carriers promised by 
Tippu Tib, to move forward in the track of the advance 
column, which would blaze its way as it went on. Stanley 
also added as a sort of postscript to his orders, that if 
Tippu Tib failed them, they might move on, carrying half 
the loads one day's march, and coming back for the other 
half next day. 

The Stanley with her passengers arrived August 14, 1887, 
at the camp, but Tippu Tib proved utterly faithless. At first 
he found himself engaged in a private feud, which needed 
the services of all his men, and later there were such reports 
of the state of the Rear Column, and the severe, capricious 
discipline of Barttelot, that it is probable he could not have 
got together his six hundred men either by force or by 
persuasion. 

Inaction, disease, despondency, told upon all those left in 
the entrenched camp, as weeks went on. Barttelot had had 
some friction with Stanley on their march to Stanley Pool j 
Stanley having called him to order, probably with some per- 
emptoriness, for some inattention to discipline, for Stanley 
was undoubtedly peremptory both by nature and poHcy. If 
he was to be a leader it was necessary that all under him 
should know it and acknowledge it, early in their inter- 
course. So Barttelot seems to have determined with a 
sort of dogged perversity that he should not be accused 
again of disobeying orders. He would, as the sailors' saying 
is, ''Obey orders and break owners." His orders as he 
understood them had said : " Come on when you get Tippu 
Tib's men," — and he was going to wait for them. He had 
also been told that the stores destined for Emin were to 
be kept for him with the greatest care, — therefore men, 
black or white, might die, but nothing should be taken from 



* 'l!'' .'. 






|;iir',#,?;|j^f;rv^^f',vr 



''■.'; ,''i!''' '• 








TIPPU TIB. 



DARKEST AFRICA. 1 75 

those boxes. Bonny said when first recounting the disaster 
of the Rear Column at Fort Bodo : " Oh ! Barttelot was off 
his head!" The same excuse maybe offered I think for 
other autocrats mentioned in history, who without suffering 
the effects of African fever have become at least semi- 
insane under the pressure of the possession of absolute 
power. 

For months Barttelot and his officers were kept con- 
stantly travelling up and down the Congo on fruitless 
errands. Now to Stanley Falls, now to Katonga, two hun- 
dred miles south of the Falls, upon the river, in a vain 
attempt to hurry up Tippu ; now down the Congo to 
send or receive telegrams from the Central Committee of 
the Relief Expedition in London. Ward was the man most 
employed in these later expeditions ; he made some remark- 
able journeys on the Congo in canoes. But Barttelot, for 
no visible reason, fell out with him, and wrote him an insult- 
ing letter which looked like insanity. 

While all the white men seem to have been running about 
on various missions, the camp appears to have fallen into a 
terrible state of sickness, depression, destitution, and undis- 
cipUne, followed by cruel and excessive punishments. The 
food of the men was chiefly manioc root, which no one 
seems to have taught them how to prepare properly, and in 
the crude state in which they used it it was semi-poisonous. 

On June ii, 1888, Barttelot moved from the entrenched 
camp at Yambuya to Banalya, having sent Ward two thou- 
sand miles to the coast to send a telegram to England — 
two thousand miles there, and two thousand miles back, and 
for the second time ! Troup had gone home invalided. 
Barttelot himself had travelled thirteen hundred miles on 
various errands. 

On July 17, 1888, when Stanley was on the march back 
from Fort Bodo, Barttelot, who had been absent, returned 
to camp with some Manyuema Arabs, whom he had at last 
got as carriers from Tippu. Jameson was away on some 
errand, Bonny was the only other white man in camp. 



176 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

The next morning about five o'clock, when sleepless and 
irritable, Barttelot was disturbed by the shrill singing of a 
woman, the wife of one of the Arab head men, whom he 
had brought with him. He seized his cane and rushing out 
of his tent began to beat the woman. Her husband fired 
at him through a loophole in his tent and stretched him 
dead. 

Bonny at once sent for Jameson, who on his arrival 
(leaving the camp again in charge of Bonny) set out at 
once for Stanley Falls to see Tippu and have punishment 
dealt out to the murderer. From Stanley Falls he wrote to 
Bonny that he was going down the river to Bangala to see 
the despatches from the Committee in London, for at 
Bangala, Barttelot, from some unaccountable whim, had 
ordered Ward to keep them. 

" We at Fort Bodo," writes Parke, on hearing these things 
on Stanley's return with the remnant of Barttelot's followers, 
" are kept in a fog of amazement in trying to understand 
the how and the why of the wreck of the Rear Column." 

Subsequently he writes : — 

" My ill-fated friend Major Barttelot, who was the means 
of my introduction to the expedition, was one of my 
brightest and pleasantest companions during the first eight 
months of its course. Although possessed of a rather 
ungovernable temper, he was always a very jolly comrade, 
when not depressed or over-tasked by sickness or worry ; 
and the only thing which tended to neutralize his usefulness 
in the post assigned him was his pronounced antipathy to 
the black man. Had he been more fortunate in his choice, 
and not joined our expedition, his energy and undoubted 
bravery would probably have secured for him a brilliant 
soldierly career. The only other officer who died on the 
expedition, Mr. Jameson, was always quiet, most cheerful, 
and amiable to a degree." 

This being the case, Jameson's friends and the public were 
amazed when, by the revelations of one of the interpreters, 
it was learned, and repeated all along the Congo, that that 



DARKEST AFRICA. 



177 



gentleman had paid for a black girl to be purchased, killed, 
and eaten by cannibals, and had made sketches of the 
revolting scene. No one would have beHeved the story had 
not a letter from himself pronounced the main facts true. 
Only he said that when he gave six handkerchiefs to buy 
the girl, he thought it all a joke on the part of the men to 
whom he gave them. 

Jameson died in Warde's arms immediately on arriving 
at Bangala, about the very day on which Stanley reached 
his Rear Column in its camp at Banalya ; where Bonny alone 
of his white officers awaited him. 

When Stanley's "Darkest Africa" came out, suppressing 
much of Barttelot's mismanagement of the Rear Column, 
but still laying considerable blame on him for not at all 
risks moving forward, Barttelot's friends and family, in a 
white heat of indignation, published a book intended to be 
his vindication, but it brought out facts which, no doubt, had 
they known them, they would have wished suppressed ; and 
which Stanley magnanimously had passed over lightly. 

Enough of the Rear Column. We now turn to another 
episode. 

Mr. Jephson tells us that when Emin met Stanley at 
Kavallis, April 28, 1888, he told him there was some trouble 
in his province, but did not disclose to him that half his 
troops, in what was called the first battalion (Egyptian 
army), were in open revolt against him. 

When Emin heard of the fall of Khartoum, and that the 
Soudan was to be abandoned to the Soudanese, i.e. to the 
Arabs and anarchy, he was desirous to withdraw as much as 
possible from the northern part of his province, and to 
strengthen himself along the shores of the Albert Nyanza, 
where he would have his steamers, and might hope to open 
a route to Zanzibar, if he could gain the good will of Kabba 
Rega, the potentate who governed Unyoro, the country to 
the south and east of the lake. To this end he sent an 
envoy to Kabba Rega, his only white man, Casati, an Italian 
captain, who had come out to join him before Khartoum 

N 



178 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

fell, and who had since travelled extensively to the north of 
the Dark Forest, along the tributaries of the Aruwimi. 
Casati seems to have had the art of making himself popular 
with African chiefs and people, but he was unsuccessful with 
Kabba Rega, who, after keeping him some months at his 
court, suddenly plundered his house, tied him all night 
naked to a tree, and then turned him forth in that condition, 
forbidding his people to give him clothes, shelter, or food. 
In that state Casati was found by Emin, who came down 
the lake in a steamer, during the interval that elapsed 
between Stanley's first and second visits to the Albert 
Nyanza. Casati has written a book so entirely without 
dates, or index, or any other arrangement, that it is a per- 
fect dark forest, very difficult to find one's way through. 

When Stanley departed from Kavallis, Jephson, who was 
left alone with Emin, began to get clearer views of the situ- 
ation in the pasha's province. It was evident that the 
European world had been misled by Dr. Junker, and by 
the few letters from Emin that had made their way to civil- 
ization. Emin had plenty of ammunition, indeed had de- 
stroyed much that it might not fall into the hands of the 
rebels. He had abundant supplies of food and clothing, 
and as to returning to Egypt, very few of his people, Egyp- 
tians, Arabs, or Soudanese, had any wish to do so. Some 
few said that if he went they would follow him, but that 
meant merely that they dared not stay behind and fall into 
the hands of the rebels. 

The people with him were Egyptian military officers and 
clerks, and Soudanese from Dongola. Such of the Egyptian 
officers, Jephson says, as had been sent to Equatoria as a sort 
of military penal station, had for good reasons no wish what- 
ever to return to Egypt ; nor had the Soudanese any desire 
to go. They were living in power and plenty, and had 
wives and families whom they said they would not have 
money to support if they returned to Egypt. They were 
well satisfied with things as they were. But if the tranquil- 
Hty of the province was to be disturbed by such advices as 



DARKEST AFRICA. 1 79 

had reached them from Khartoum, and by the sudden 
arrival out of the Dark Forest of interfering Enghshmen, they 
would rather retain their hold on Equatoria as a military 
aristocracy, a race of Mamelukes ; Emin Pasha might de- 
part ; they would govern the country, and if necessary repulse 
the Mahdi for themselves. 

The officers of the second battalion of Emin's army were 
for the most part also disaffected, and took advantage of 
Stanley's arrival and departure to stir up mutiny in their 
own ranks, already in sympathy with the first battalion. 
Reports were circulated that Stanley was an adventurer and 
an impostor. It was utterly impossible he could have come 
from the Khedive by way of the West of Africa ; he could 
not have penetrated the Dark Forest ; he was, in short, a 
European slave-hunter who wanted to get them all into his 
hands and sell them to the English as slaves ! Emin seems 
to have been aware of this impression, and, therefore, wanted 
Jephson to stay with him, and answer any questions about 
their march that might be put to him ; also to read to his 
people the Khedive's and Nubar Pasha's letters. 

It did not take Jephson long to find out two things : 
I. That no promises made by any Egyptians, Soudanese, 
or natives, were to be relied on. 2. That Emin had no 
real authority whatever. He was in the habit of believing 
in the good intentions of each and all who spoke to him by 
turns. He was in his own eyes a beneficent governor, at 
the head of a devoted people. His headquarters were at 
Wadelai on the Nile, some distance from the lake ; and 
still further north on the Nile was Dafile, a large military 
station occupied by the second battalion. Tunguru was 
the chief port on Lake Albert, but as Emin and Jephson 
travelled thither they heard that the soldiers of the second 
battalion were in open revolt at Dafile. Of this Jephson 
says : — 

" I pitied poor Emin intensely. Personally he was in no 
fear, for he was plucky from head to foot, but the thing that 
cut him to the heart was that his people, for whom he had 



l80 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY, 

done everything, should so turn against him. He said how 
deeply sorry he was that he should have been the means of 
bringing me into this nest of unpleasant possibilities. Of 
course I could only assure him that I was glad to be with 
him in his trouble." 

They reached Dafile ; were sullenly received, and shortly 
after imprisoned. However, after some diplomacy, the rebels, 
for certain not very clearly expressed reasons of their own (for 
there were intrigues within intrigues among them), permitted 
Jephson to go south to Wadelai in a steamer, Emin begging 
him if possible to save his papers and collections, which 
were in his house at Wadelai. It had been reported that 
Stanley was at Kavallis again, and the rebels had hopes of 
getting him and his valuable stores into their hands. 

If Jephson did not find Stanley at the lake he was under 
promise to return to imprisonment at Dafile. The report 
of Stanley's arrival proved untrue. Wadelai, when Jeph- 
son reached it, was in the hands of the mutineers, who 
had seized the ammunition. The houses of Emin and his 
friends had been pillaged. Emin's httle daughter Ferida 
was at Wadelai, and before Jephson left to return to captiv- 
ity at Dafile, according to his promise, she found a secret 
moment to give him the beads off her own neck, and beg 
him to give them to her " baba," and to tell him, if the 
rebels did not give him enough to eat, to buy chickens with 
them. "What European child of four years old," asks 
Jephson, " would have thought of such a thing? " 

By this time the rebels had got the complete upper hand 
in the province, and in the midst of their triumph came the 
news that an expedition of dervishes from the Khalifa Ab- 
dullah was coming. This changed the situation of affairs. 
The mutineers began to turn to Emin for advice — nor did 
Emin refuse to help them. There is a shocking story in 
Jephson's book relating to the way in which the rebels tor- 
tured five dervishes, sent as envoys by the Mahdist com- 
mander, and of the constancy (worthy of Christian martyrs) 
with which these men endured their sufferings. 



DARKEST AFRICA. l8l 

At last the rebels found it necessary to evacuate Dafile, 
and Emin and Jephson, now once more at liberty, went 
with the rest of the fugitives to Wadelai. There Emin was 
received by the population with enthusiasm, and his spirits 
and his confidence revived. 

The soldiers implored him to be their commander again 
and undertake the defense of Wadelai, but he decided to 
retire to a better position on the lake. It was then that 
Jephson sunk his boat the Advance, that she might not fall 
into the hands of the dervishes, a measure for which Stanley 
afterwards blamed him. 

At last, early in December, 1888, the fugitives from Wadelai 
arrived on the lake at the port of Tunguru. It proved, 
however, that the Mahdists had not advanced, and that the 
scare that had driven them southward and caused the 
destruction of the Advance was unfounded. 

Everything now throughout the province was in wild con- 
fusion. Drunkenness and debauchery prevailed, and there 
was no leader to head any party. In the midst of all this, 
on January 7, 1889, a letter came from Stanley saying that he 
was within a day's march of the lake. At the close of a 
private letter to Jephson, he said : — 

" The committee said : Relieve Emin Pasha with the ammuni- 
tion. The Khedive said the same thing, and added : ' But 
if the pasha and the officers elect to stay they do so on their 
own responsibility,"' Baring said the same thing, and here 
I am, after four thousand one hundred miles of travel, with 
the last instalment of relief. Let him who is authorized to take 
it — take it. Let him who wants to come out of this devouring 
circle, come. I am ready to lend all my strength and wit to 
assist him. But this time there must be no hesitation, but posi- 
tive yea or nay ; and home we go!" 

On January 30, 1889, Jephson at last reached his leader's 
camp. The Zanzibaris received him with tumultuous wel- 
come. Stanley met him calmly, though with a smile. He 
could not yet forgive the unnecessary destruction of the 
Adva7tce. Jephson explained as well as he could to Stanley 
that Emin's many-mindedness had really been the chief 



1 82 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

obstacle hitherto to his dehverance. But a few days later, 
February 14, Emin and a party of his followers really did arrive. 
The officers with Emin brought their wives and children. 
The rebels had heard exaggerated reports of Stanley's 
strength, and had been afraid of his vengeance if they should 
detain Emin. Jephson was sent at once to meet the party. 
When within an hour's march of Kavallis the train stopped 
that all might put on their best clothes, " so that when we 
reached Stanley's camp," said Jephson, "we were quite an 
imposing-looking caravan, with all the bright clothes and 
snow-white raiment of Emin's people, as, with flags flying 
and trumpets playing the Khedival Hymn, we marched into 
our camp. So for the second time I witnessed the meeting 
between Stanley and Emin." 

How Stanley found his rear guard must be told rapidly. 
Leaving Fort Bodo, June 16, 1888, they came up, on August 
10, with the messengers who had been despatched in a body 
some months before to Barttelot. Fifteen out of twenty were 
still living, but had halted, discouraged, by the way. On 
August 17 Stanley and his party unexpectedly sighted the 
forlorn camp at Banalya, found Bonny in charge, and heard 
of its misfortunes. Only one hundred and two men were 
living out of two hundred and seventy-one. Of six hundred 
loads there remained only two hundred and thirty. All 
Stanley's personal effects had been sent down the river on 
the faith of a rumor that he was dead. 

The Stanley party, with the remnant of the rear guard, 
reached Fort Bodo, as we have seen, December 20, 1888. 
Dr. Parke says: — 

" The men were really in a miserable state from debility 
and hunger. I never saw so repulsive a sight as that fur- 
nished by the unfortunate survivors of the rear guard, eaten 
up as they were with enormous ulcers." 

These ulcers their medical attendant goes on to describe 
with particulars almost sickening. 

"Mr. Stanley," he says, "had plenty of food for himself 
and his men till, on the return march, they reached a place 



DARKEST AFRICA. 1 83 

near the Ituri river. There they found food very scarce. 
And from that time they had all gone through a terrible 
period of starvation, as bad as at any period of the expe- 
dition." 

Later Parke jots in his journal: "Bonny is very reticent 
though he tells us that many things that were done at Yam- 
buya were against his advice, and vice vejsay 

Ten days after Stanley's arrival at Fort Bodo, when 
Christmas had passed, and his men had washed, eaten, 
and rested their sore and wearied limbs, the indefatigable 
leader confessed to Dr. Parke that, on the return journey 
through the Dark Forest back to Fort Bodo, he had, for 
the first time in his African experience, almost yielded to 
despair. 

On January 11, 1889, the party, partly refreshed, were hur- 
rying again towards Lake Albert to find out what had become 
of Jephson and Emin, leaving Fort Bodo like a hospital 
behind them. We have seen how the pasha and his party 
joined them at Kavallis, and a little later arrived Stairs 
and Parke from Fort Bodo with the rest of the expedition. 

From that time, day after day, scattering parties of 
Emin's Egyptian ofhcers, with their wives, children, slaves, 
and household goods, kept dropping in at Kavallis, but only 
those, apparently, who feared to remain in the province if 
its pasha was gone. 

The things they lugged along with them, and expected 
to have transported to Zanzibar, sent rage and despair into 
the hearts of Stanley's officers — grindstones, for example. 
Parke says : — 

" I never saw a more loathsome set than these indolent, 
insolent, over-fed, bloated Egyptian officials. They are 
mostly convicts, and I have already seen a couple of mur- 
derers." 

From February 13 to April 30, the history of the camp 
at Kavallis is a mere record of waiting on the indecisions 
of the many-minded Emin. At every moment Stanley and 
his men were in danger of the mutineers marching down on 



1 84 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

them and capturing the expedition and its stores. Jephson 

says : — 

" I felt indignant when I saw our hard-worked, patient Zanzi- 
baris staggering under some of the heavy loads belonging to 
Emin's worthless people. My personal duty to the pasha termi- 
nated when we reached Kavallis, from thence to the East Coast 
of Africa I had little or nothing to do with him. I had always 
cherished the kindest relations to him, and it grieved me when I 
found my idol not quite equal to what I had imagined him. As 
a companion, a scientific man, and an entomologist, no one could 
excel him, but he had not the qualities fitted to exercise authority 
as a governor. He was capricious in his intercourse with Casati, 
also with the members of the expedition. However, we hoped 
that when we were on the march all this would improve. The 
halt, however, we were compelled by Stanley's illness to make, a 
few days after we started, brought out the pasha's acerbity of 
temper more harshly than ever. He was a changed man ; nobody 
pleased him, the slightest thing provoked him." 

Emin may not unreasonably have found it "provoking" 
to be under the direction, if not the orders, of a man so 
different from himself as Mr. Stanley, and I think, in one 
instance at the beginning of the march, Stanley interfered 
somewhat unwarrantably to make the nurse of the little 
Ferida return at night to the tent of her husband. But 
all the Expedition blamed the pasha for not interfering 
by a word or an order to prevent the Egyptians from cru- 
elly ill-treating the Zanzibaris who bore their burdens. 

I have no space to dwell on the journey to the East Coast. 
Had it not been for the energy and resolution of Stanley and 
his officers, the helpless creatures dependent upon Emin 
never could have struggled through. 

I should like to tell of the halt the expedition made at 
the station of the missionary, Mr. Mackay, who, together 
with the French priests, had been expelled, in 1888, from 
Uganda, and had made other stations for themselves upon 
the line of march taken by Stanley. Mackay 's biography 
is a most interesting book, and his estimate of Stanley as 
a man and as a leader is of the highest kind, — but, like 
the expedition, I must hurry to a close. 



DARKEST AFRICA. 1 85 

Kabba Rega endeavored to molest the expedition, but 
was not very successful. 

Two days' march from Bagamoyo, October i, 1889, Major 
Weissman, the German commander and explorer, met the 
expedition, and great was the rejoicing. Weissman es- 
corted them all to Bagamoyo, the port on the East Coast 
of Africa nearest to Zanzibar. Bagamoyo was then in pos- 
session of the Germans. 

At a feast given by the Germans to the officers of the 
expedition on reaching Bagamoyo, all went "merry as a 
marriage bell," while the Zanzibaris danced outside on 
the market-place. Emin seemed happy and courteous. 
Towards the close of the feast he walked round the table, 
speaking pleasantly to several of the guests, and then passed 
into the next room to look out on the frolics of the Zanzi- 
baris. 

Dr. Parke remarks that for many years Emin had never 
been in a two-story house. He was very short-sighted, 
and, besides, had cataract. He walked out of the win- 
dow, believing he was stepping on a balcony, and fell 
eighteen or twenty feet to the ground. He was picked 
up at once, and carried to the German hospital, where he 
was attended by Dr. Parke and the German doctor. Both 
thought he had slightly fractured his skull. Parke waited 
on him day and night, and he seemed to place great con- 
fidence in him, and to be much attached to him. But 
Parke was taken ill himself, — so ill that Stanley and his 
brother officers were sent for to bid him farewell. From 
the hour that Parke left Emin's side he never heard one 
word from the pasha; no message of gratitude, no little 
souvenir in recognition of his services ever reached him. 

Both Emin and Parke recovered, and then came the news 
that the pasha had renounced all connection with Egypt and 
with England, and had entered into an engagement to join 
the German explorers in East Africa. 

Soon after the German officers had met the expedition, 
one of them said to Jephson : " I can see what Weissman 



1 86 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

intends to do. He intends to get hold of the pasha for 
the German company. All I can say is that, from what 
we have seen of Emin for the last few days, it is the best 
thing that could possibly happen for the English company, 
for the pasha is bound to make a mess of anything he puts 
his hand into." 

And so it proved. Emin entered into the German ser- 
vice, and was sent on an expedition to the interior. The 
world heard nothing of him for some time, then telegrams 
from Berlin informed us that Emin had made a settlement 
east of the Victoria Nyanza, but that his views were so 
extravagant that the government refused to meet the expense 
of carrying them out. At one time he was at Kavallis, 
almost within the limits of his old province, and it was 
said that it was proposed to him to check the anarchy that 
reigned there by resuming the government. 

We next heard that he was at the head of an exploring 
party marching into the interior. Having led it, how- 
ever, beyond the bounds of the territory claimed to be 
under German influence, into lands by treaty under that of 
England, the German government disavowed all connection 
with his enterprise, which thus became that of a private 
adventurer. 

He wrote, when not far from the east coast of the Albert 
Nyanza, that the slave-raiders had found their way into that 
beautiful land, had laid waste its villages, and killed or 
carried off its inhabitants. Many persons thought that he 
was hovering on the borders of his old province with the 
intention of carrying off, if possible, the great hoard of 
ivory he had cached there, which he never would give up 
to Stanley, and of which he never employed any part in 
assisting to pay off, as had been hoped, the expenses of the 
Relief Expedition. 

Jephson, alluding to certain paragraphs that appeared in 
German papers, wholly false in fact, but purporting to be 
the substance of interviews with Emin, says : — 

" On reading these constant ebullitions of spite on Emin's 



DARKE S T AFRICA. 1 8/ 

part, I sometimes feel a certain amount of indignation, but 
it speedily develops into a feeling of pity. ... I have 
known Emin Pasha as a man with a kindly and generous 
mind, physically courageous, but morally a coward. A 
clever, accomplished gentleman, enthusiastic for the sci- 
ence of natural history, but not of that firm temper required 
to lead men, nor of that disposition required to attract 
and sway them. A man whose natural kindness of heart is 
being constantly spoiled by his delicate susceptibility and 
childlike vanity. A man whose straightforward, European 
directness and accuracy has been warped by a too long 
residence among Orientals. And yet, too, if you appeal 
to his generosity he will always meet you more than half 
way. Emin would always be, to a certain extent, subject 
to the influence of those by whom he was surrounded." 

When Stanley crossed the strait between Bagamoyo and 
Zanzibar, he had been very anxious to take Emin with him, 
but the surgeons decided that he could not be moved. 
The Egyptian refugees were, therefore, taken to Zanzi- 
bar, Emin's own household and immediate followers being 
left with him. The refugees were well-housed and provided 
for in Zanzibar, but they so misconducted themselves that 
they were, after ten days, moved back to the mainland, 
to Mombassa, where they were more out of the way of temp- 
tation than in a disorderly city. Thence they were sent to 
Suez in an Egyptian steamer. 

Stanley and his officers (except Jephson at the last) were 
always prevented from visiting Emin in the hospital at Bag- 
amoyo; they presumed this was by German influence, and 
never after did any member of the expedition receive sign 
or word from him. 

The remaining Zanzibaris received rewards which made 
them rich men in their own land, and the relations of the 
dead were cared for. 

On January i6, 1890, Stanley reached Cairo, and three 
months afterwards England. He had lingered at Cairo to 
prepare for the press his account of the wonderful expedi- 



1 88 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY, 

tion. How he was honored and feted; how he became 
engaged to Miss Dorothy Tennant; how a severe attack of 
African fever came near postponing the marriage; how they 
were wedded in Westminster Abbey, where, fourteen years 
before, Stanley made his vow to carry out Livingstone's 
life-work; how he broke his leg on a Swiss mountain; 
how he lectured in the United States and in Australia; how 
he was a candidate for election to Parliament in 1892, 
and, being defeated, settled into the idyllic existence of 
an English country gentleman, we all know from our news- 
papers. We know also that, again becoming a candidate 
for election to Parliament in 1895, he is now member for 
North Lambeth; but, while he will sit in the House of Com- 
mons as the choice of an English constituency, he will be 
virtually the member for Africa. 

Undoubtedly there are roughnesses in the disposition of 
Mr. Stanley, but those roughnesses assisted in fitting him 
to be a leader of black men. We see the results of mere 
amiableness in Emin Pasha, and we contrast them with what 
was won by Stanley's energy, perseverance, punctuality, 
quick decision, and even peremptoriness. The hearts of 
those under him might safely trust in him : it was far dif- 
ferent with Emin. An American reviewer said, comment- 
ing on Jephson's book, "We knew Stanley had all the 
qualities of a great leader, but never till now had we done 
justice to his forbearance and his magnanimity." 



CHAPTER VII. 

UGANDA. 

O far as concerns Africa," wrote a French geographer, 
twenty years ago, " the past has been resuscitated ; 
old knowledge has become new." The great features of 
Central Africa were known long before Europe awakened to 
modern geographical enterprise. Herodotus had an inkling 
of them, and Ptolemy all but located the great lakes of 
Equatoria. Old globes of the sixteenth century, founded 
on reports gathered from Portuguese missionaries and ex- 
plorers, were far more accurate than those that were in 
common use almost to our own day. The great lakes, the 
upper Nile, and upper Congo were effaced at one stroke by 
the geographers of the eighteenth century ; a tabula rasa 
was made on their maps of the centre of Africa ; a great white 
space was left where earlier map-makers had rightly placed 
the great lakes and mighty rivers, in our day rediscovered, 
if we may say so, by Speke and Baker, Burton, Livingstone, 
and Stanley. 

And now it is bewildering to look upon a map of Africa 
made during the last few years. On the shores of the Medi- 
terranean, Morocco alone retains its independence and 
remains " unprotected," but Spain keeps upon its sultan a 
watchful eye. Algeria has been long French territory; 
Tunis is under French protection ; Tripoli alone acknowl- 
edges the suzerainty of the Sultan, who at the last fin du 
siede ruled over the whole shore of Africa on the Mediter- 
ranean ; Egypt is under Enghsh " protection," if not English 
sway. Beyond Egypt lie provinces she has been forced to 
abandon, England, however, retaining the port of Suakim on 

189 



1 90 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

the Red Sea. The Itahans claim to " protect " Abyssinia, 
though Abyssinia vehemently protests against such protec- 
tion. Italy has likewise acquired treaty rights in Somaliland 
south of Cape Guardafui, on the Indian Ocean, though 
England '^ protects " that part of the Somali coast which is 
near the entrance to the Red Sea. Below Somahland is 
England's East Africa, sometimes called Ibea, whose devel- 
opment has been confided to the Imperial British East 
African Company. It stretches back from the coast to the 
northern shores of the Victoria Nyanza, and the limits of 
its Hinterland (as the Germans call back-country) seem to 
be ill defined. South of the territory of the Imperial Brit- 
ish East African Company lies German East Africa, begin- 
ning with the mainland territory that in 1886 she acquired 
from Zanzibar. The Sultan of Zanzibar, with his possessions 
now limited to Zanzibar itself, and a few smaller islands, is 
under British protection. Mozambique, with a long line of 
coast, lying west of Madagascar, is governed by Portugal. 
Thence British territory stretches to the Cape of Good 
Hope, though the Dutch Republic of the Transvaal and the 
Orange Free State have " cut a monstrous cantle " out of 
the English possessions. On the Atlantic coast Germany's 
acquisition of a large territory called German West Africa 
was recognized by England in 1884. North of German 
West Africa lies Angola, where the Portuguese are still 
supreme. Along the Congo, where it runs into the sea, 
Congo Free State has a pan-handle piece of territory, which 
gives the Free State an outlet to the sea. North of this is 
French Congo ; north of that the Germans have the Cam- 
eroons ; northwest of the Cameroons, along the Gulf of 
Guinea, the British Royal Niger Company has its claim. 
France, England, and Germany divide the Gold Coast, till 
stopped by the little Republic of Liberia. Then comes 
Sierra Leone, which is English ; a small Portuguese state ; 
the English possessions on the River Gambia ; French Sou- 
dan, and a large state, httle known to Europeans and claimed 
by Spain, called Rio di Oro, which lies south of Morocco. 



UGANDA. 191 

The centre of Africa is divided between the Hinterland 
of these possessions ; French Soudan, which covers an im- 
mense extent of territory; the Soudan that was once 
Egyptian, but that no one protects now from anarchy and 
devastation ; and the Congo Free State, under the patron- 
age of Belgium and the good faith of other powers. 

Thus England has eight portions of Africa under her rule 
or " protection " ; Germany has German East Africa and 
German Southwest Africa and the Cameroons ; France has 
an immense body of territory, with limits ill defined, in 
French Soudan, and the French Congo, besides Algeria, 
which is absolutely French ; Tunis is also under her protec- 
tion. Italy has Abyssinia and Somahland, and wants Trip- 
oli ; while Portugal and Spain have each shares in the Dark 
Continent. The only independent states are the small 
empire of Morocco and three little republics, Liberia, the 
Transvaal, and Orange Free State. Madagascar is about to 
exchange partial French " protection " for a stronger grip of 
the French power. 

If all this is bewildering to the reader, it is far more 
so for the writer who attempts to make it clear. These 
divisions have almost all been apportioned since 1884. 
Since that date no less than fourteen treaties have been 
made by European powers, among themselves, concerning 
the division of Africa. England has three companies with 
territorial rights in the field, — the Royal Niger Company, 
the South African Company, and the Imperial British East 
African Company. It is v/ith the troubled story of this last 
that we are now to deal. 

When news reached England, in 1876, of Stanley's expe- 
dition down the Congo, of his sojourn in Uganda, of his 
remarkable conversion of King 'Mtesa, and of the earnest 
petition of that singular despot to English Christians that 
teachers should be sent to him, the Church Missionary 
Society lost no time in despatching a missionary to his 
court and capital. That missionary was the Rev. Alexander 
M. Mackay, the " best man for the work," says Stanley, 



192 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

" since Livingstone." His skill in mechanics rendered him 
of immense value to 'Mtesa. He made the most various 
things for the king, from a copper coffin for his deceased 
mother, who 'Mtesa desired might be buried like a European 
princess, to rope for his flagstaff. Copper was the best sub- 
stitute for lead to be found in Uganda, and to obtain it a 
great number of copper salvers, sent as presents from other 
potentates to 'Mtesa, were used, Mackay was also appealed 
to to mend everything out of order, from clocks that were 
"dead," to rifles, which in inexperienced hands had got 
their locks broken. But 'Mtesa's great zeal for Christian 
instruction seemed to have worn off since the days when all 
was new to him, as he listened to Stanley. He wanted nov- 
elty, and by way of obtaining it had invited a French Roman 
Catholic Mission to his court, though he subsequently ban- 
ished its members from his country. 'Mtesa's changes of 
faith had been various, denoting, however, a real search for 
an answer to the great question, "What is truth?" pro- 
pounded, to Him who alone could answer it, by a cultivated 
heathen. 'Mtesa had been born a pagan, but had been con- 
verted by Arab traders into a sort of semi-Mohammedan. 
He, however, refused to submit to the initiatory rite of that 
religion, nor would he observe the custom of having his cattle 
killed in orthodox Mohammedan fashion. On this, such of 
his people as had embraced Islamism declined to eat of 
the meats sent to them from his table. This he considered 
high treason. In his rage he murdered Arabs and converts 
alike. Those who could escape fled, and he thus, between 
the visits of Captain Speke in 1865 and that of Stanley in 
1875, ^^^d stamped out Mohammedanism in his dominions. 
Between the northern waters of the Victoria Nyanza and 
the southern shores of Lake Albert is a broad belt of land 
containing the two kingdoms of Unyoro and Uganda. Un- 
yoro's northern boundary is Lake Albert, and its despot is 
that Kabba Rega who so ill-treated Emin's envoy. Captain 
Casati. Uganda lies south of Unyoro and north and west 
of the Victoria Nyanza. Each kingdom has its tributary 



UGANDA. 193 

provinces. The king of each is the other's born foe. But 
each kingdom has a government with order, laws, and cus- 
toms of its own; while between the Victoria Nyanza and 
the ocean lies a large territory, partitioned by treaty between 
Germany and England, but inhabited, for the most part, by 
negro tribes, each governed by its petty sultan or chief, who 
is continually at war with his neighbor. This is stating the 
matter in very general terms, for here and there there are 
small territories, Ankoli, for example, that seem to have 
something of settled government; but in this brief sketch 
general terms seem sufficient for our purpose. Over this 
vast region, by consent of the European powers, England 
claims right of influence and " protection "; while the " pro- 
tection " and influence of Germany extend from the sea- 
coast inland over a region of about equal extent, to the 
southern and eastern shores of the Victoria Nyanza and to 
Lake Tanganyika. England at first delegated her East 
African influence to the Imperial British East African Com- 
pany, at whose head was the late Sir William Mackinnon, 
the enterprising son of an indefatigable father, who, at one 
time, owned large tracts of land in the state of Wisconsin. 

In 1878 Mackay arrived in Uganda, but 'Mtesa had got 
over his sense of the superiority of Europeans to himself. 
He treated Mackay much more as his servant than he had 
ventured to do Stanley; and Mackay and the missionaries 
afterwards associated with him, for the sake of carrying 
on their mission work in peace, submitted to the position 
assigned to them. The work of teaching, converting, and 
building up a church in this far-off, isolated kingdom went 
on with remarkable success. There were, in twelve years, 
two thousand native professing Christians, from all classes, 
many of them, like St. Paul's early converts in Rome, mem- 
bers of "Cesar's household." 

With Mr. Mackay was associated the Rev. Mr. O'Fla- 
herty. His name being unpronounceable among the Wa- 
ganda,^ he was called Father Filipo; and in 1882 the 

1 Waganda — the inhabitants of Uganda; called Baganda by some. 
o 



194 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

mission was augmented by the arrival of Rev. Mr. Ashe, 
who has since published three books on Uganda, and who 
remained in the country about six years. Mackay was 
there for twelve years, refusing all chances of going home, 
even for a visit, and he died exiled from the country, 
living near the southern shore of the lake, and in full 
activity, four months after Mr. Stanley, on his way with 
Emin Pasha and his people to the coast, had visited him. 

We remark throughout Mackay' s, Ashe's, and Stanley's 
narratives that a great deal of good feeling existed person- 
ally between them and the Fathers of the Roman Catholic 
Missions. It is not probable that either party liked to 
have its field of work partially obstructed by the other; 
nevertheless, a common -feeling of Europeanism, to say 
nothing of Christian feeling, seems to have maintained 
relations of kindliness and mutual helpfulness for some 
time between them. The quarrels that have disgraced 
Christianity in Uganda did not begin till questions of 
political influence intruded themselves into questions of 
religion, and the passions of the Christian converts, hav- 
ing been roused by contentions with the friends of Islam, 
the old spirit of "I am of Paul" and "I am of ApoUos," 
kindled animosity between them. 

From the time of the arrival of the missionaries, 'Mtesa 
seems to have misunderstood their position. They told 
him that they came as teachers, but, misled by his sus- 
picious character, he believed them to be political agents. 
Letters that they brought from the Church Missionary Soci- 
ety, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Consul-general 
at Zanzibar (whose positions, of course, the king did not 
comprehend), confirmed him in this impression; his views 
on this subject were greatly strengthened by the Arabs, who 
had resumed their good standing at his court, and who 
naturally hated English influence as being opposed to their 
great source of wealth — the slave-trade. Added to this, the 
Germans were carrying matters with a high hand on the 
mainland opposite to Zanzibar. The seeds of mistrust were 



UGANDA. 195 

thus sown in 'Mtesa's time, and bore fruit afterwards in the 
reign of his successor. 

The chiefs (or rather headmen of the clans, whom Mr. 
Ashe calls earls, etc.), the officers of the household, and 
'Mtesa's numerous pages (sons of chiefs, who were brought 
up in his court and subject to his caprices), were all assem- 
bled in the large hut of audience when Mr. Ashe was pre- 
sented to the king. The etiquette observed was as ceremoni- 
ous as that of the court of Louis XIV. After this audience 
Mr. Ashe, once a month, amused the king by reading to him 
verses translated from the Bible, and such other things as it 
was thought might interest and instruct him; but the Arabs 
came, in like manner, to read the Koran, and the king had 
no scruples in telling Mr. Ashe that their rendering of their 
prophet's book was far superior to his poor translations. 

Towards the close of the year 1884, 'Mtesa's health 
declined rapidly. The Arabs persuaded him to send for 
doctors from Zanzibar, who had potent prescriptions. The 
doctors came; but, as they insisted on being shut up alone 
with their patient while their drug was working, and on see- 
ing that he observed the strictest regimen, the king refused, 
after a first experiment, to follow their advice. His con- 
dition was kept a profound secret, and even when he died 
the event was not made known till some time after it had 
taken place. A bloody civil war was apprehended by the 
chiefs, but it was happily averted. The custom in Uganda 
is, that a choice is to be made by the chiefs of one of the 
sons of the deceased king (the eldest one being excluded). 
Pending this choice, "every one," says Ashe, "stood on the 
defensive, awaiting the onset of his neighbors, so that there 
was no one to begin an attack." 

The choice of the chiefs fell upon Mwanga, a lad of eigh- 
teen. It was based chiefly on his likeness to 'Mtesa. Mac- 
kay was requested to make the royal cofhn as he had done 
that of the deceased queen. He did so, by nailing on a 
large chest brass and copper trays flattened out for the 
purpose, together with the zinc lining of cases that the 



196 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

mission had received with various stores. The whole was 
covered with the finest white cotton cloth, used only for 
the clothing of the aristocracy. After this the grave was 
dug deep inside of one of the king's principal houses and 
the whole country went into mourning; every man (as 
Herodotus tells us was in such cases the custom among the 
Egyptians) allowing his hair to grow. 

"Of 'Mtesa," Mr. Ashe says, "it would be hard to give 
an accurate judgment. To say he was great would hardly 
be true, but to say that he showed some fine qualities, and 
that he was, in spite of his clogging surroundings, a man 
who sought after better things, is to give him no more than 
his due. He formed a market; he encouraged bridge- 
building; and his generally courteous treatment of Euro- 
peans showed a generous spirit. He looked upon religion 
as an amusement, but grew restive when preached to "of 
righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." There 
was much that was good and lovable in his disposition, 
but his training had been in brutality, cruelty, and lust." 

Mwanga, who by his elevation changed at once his con- 
dition, which had been little better than that of a peasant, 
for the position of an autocrat, was not a lad who possessed 
any of the high qualities of his father. "How he ruled as 
a god over his people; how he imbrued his hands in inno- 
cent blood, at the cruel instigation of his commander in 
chief, a convert to Islamism; and how, when he had filled 
his cup of crime to overflowing he was as suddenly hurled 
from his power as he had been suddenly elevated to it, 
makes up the history of the earlier part of his reign." 

The French Fathers, who had been sent away by 'Mtesa, 
were recalled by Mwanga, apparently to neutralize, if pos- 
sible, the teaching of the Englishmen; it being supposed, 
even in East Africa, that the English and the French were 
national enemies; and he quarrelled on several points of 
etiquette with Mackay and his coadjutors. 

Mwanga had not been on the throne six months when, 
early in 1885, — stirred up by ill advisers, he decided to 



UGANDA, 197 

make the English missionaries feel his power. Their work 
had greatly prospered. Chiefs, pages, princesses, and 
peasants, men and boys, had come to the mission to be 
taught to read books, printed by Mackay in the Waganda 
language with a private printing press. Nearly all of them 
were subsequently baptized, and a sort of vestry or church 
council was organized. As far as mission work was con- 
cerned, all with the missionaries seemed prosperous; but 
that prosperity depended on a tyrant's will. Mackay had 
recently obtained permission to go down the lake in a 
small boat, to carry letters. On his way to the boat, accom- 
panied by Ashe, they were arrested, and led back to Mengo, 
the capital. There they found their mission boys (pupils 
and personal attendants) with their hands bound, and in 
custody. Among these boys was one of light complexion, 
son of a neighboring chief. The boy had been captured 
after a battle. He had been rescued from death by a 
Christian chief in Mwanga's army, who brought him to the 
mission; he there won every one's affection. He was about 
ten years old, very handsome, and intelligent. His name 
was Joseph Lugalama, and he was very dear to the mission- 
aries. Knowing this, Mwanga resolved to make him an 
exemplary victim, and so strike a wholesome dread of his 
autocratic power into the hearts of the missionaries. In 
vain they appealed to the Katikiro or prime minister; in 
vain they offered ransom ; in vain the Christian chief who 
had first captured the poor child exerted his influence. 
Lugalama and two other boys were led out to a dismal 
swamp for execution. They went to death singing the 
hymns they had been taught at the mission. Their arms 
were severed first, then their bodies were hung over a slow 
fire. 

One boy, the eldest, died calmly, committing himself to 
"Him who judgeth righteously; " the next appealed to the 
Mohammedan commander in chief, saying: "You believe 
in Allah, the All-Merciful!" Poor little Lugalama was 
the last. He cried, " Oh ! do not cut off my arms ! I will 



198 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

iiot struggle ! I will not fight. Only throw me in the 
fire ! " 1 

A Christian convert stood near watching this dreadful 
spectacle, January 31, 1885. The commander in chief, 
excited by blood, came up to him : " Oh ! you here ? I 
will burn you too, and your household. I know you are a 
follower of Isa (Jesus)." "I am," was the answer, "and I 
am not ashamed of it." But happily the brutal soldier 
turned and left him. 

"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." 
Converts increased rapidly after these executions. Perse- 
cution in Uganda always came in sudden gusts, and as 
speedily died away. The king displayed his power, his 
irritation, or his contempt, and then subsided. Many of the 
king's ministers and advisers were still, however, constantly 
urging that Mackay and Ashe should be killed. But Mac- 
kay's services were too valuable for this, and the mis- 
sion brought into the country many much-prized goods, of 
which the king expected to receive his full share in presents. 

Through the spring of 1885 came distorted rumors con- 
cerning Emin Pasha and Casati in Unyoro, and a little later 
the French priests, recalled by Mwanga, arrived. They 
were three in number, Fathers Lourdel and Jeraud, together 
with a lay brother who was something of a carpenter. Mr. 
Ashe says : — 

" We were always on very good terms with them. I think 
that by that time we had all recognized that there was room 
for both parties; and that they had learned the lesson that, 
however much they objected to our doctrine, public dem- 
onstration of it was of no use. Their former attacks had 
been made with an honest purpose, but now there was noth- 
ing of the kind; and all our dealings with them were of the 
pleasantest description." 

1 *' Frederick II. of Germany, in the thirteenth century, the sovereign 
of the largest intelhgence and finest pohtical genius of all his time, cut 
off his prisoners' hands and feet, put out their eyes, and so cast them 
into the fire." — Christian History in its Three Great Periods, by 
Joseph Henry Allen. 



UGANDA. 199 

For a while there was peace. Then came news that 
Bishop Hannington was on his way to Uganda, It was an 
opportunity for Mwanga and his advisers to strike a decisive 
blow. If the bishop was not an agent of the English gov- 
ernment he might be murdered with impunity, as several 
other Englishmen in eastern Africa had been already, and 
England had taken no notice; if he was an agent having a 
political mission, the more reason for preventing his arrival. 
The Arabs were never weary of telling the king that wher- 
ever the Europeans set their foot the land would be theirs 
in time. The missionaries always combated this state- 
ment; but the Arabs were more far-sighted than the 
churchmen. 

To understand Mwanga' s principal pretext for the murder 
of Bishop Hannington, we must know that Uganda had sev- 
eral outlying provinces under the rule of powerful chiefs, 
but subject to the king of Uganda as their suzerain. 
One of these provinces, lying northeast of the Victoria 
Nyanza, was Usogo. A prophecy had long before declared 
that conquerors should come through Usogo to "eat up" 
Uganda, and travellers upon that road were looked upon 
with great suspicion by Mwanga and his people. One of 
the first questions Mwanga asked the missionaries, when 
they came to tell him that the bishop was on his way from 
Zanzibar was, "Will he come through Usogo?" They had 
answered no; he had written that he was coming by the 
south of the lake, and would like boats to be sent for him 
to Kavirondo. News of the German aggressions on the 
coast, and of their bombardment of the city of Zanzibar, 
was, also, on the same day, communicated to Mwanga. 

Most unhappily the bishop changed his route while on 
the way, not knowing anything of the prophecy which made 
it dangerous that he should cross Usogo. Mwanga had taken 
up the impression that the bishop must be, in some way, 
connected with the Germans. In vain the missionaries 
brought him a school atlas, and pointed out the different 
countries. England, France, and Germany probably con- 



200 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

veyed as little idea to him as to us the names of Uganda, 
Unyoro, and Usogo. " The general opinion was, that the 
bishop should not be allowed to come, especially if he was 
coming through '■the back door,'' i.e. Usogo." 

On October 25, 1885, the missionaries at the capital 
received sure news that the bishop was in Usogo, and 
that orders had been sent by Mwanga to the chief to kill 
him. In vain they pleaded for his safety. A few months 
after the bishop's death they procured his writing-case, in 
which was his journal kept up almost to his last moments. 
The keeper of the king's stores was their friend, and gave 
the writing-case, as worthless, into their hands. 

Bishop Hannington was alone on the latter part of his 
journey. He reached the principal village of Usogo on 
October 21, 1885. The chief appeared unfriendly, having, 
indeed, received orders that the white man and his follow- 
ers were to be all killed. In the evening the bishop climbed 
a hill near his camp, and had a splendid view of the Vic- 
toria Nile. Suddenly about twenty ruflians set on him, 
hustled him, beat him, and dragged him along at a rapid 
pace, through jungle and brushwood, for about two miles, 
tearing his clothes and seizing his valuables. He thought 
that they were robbers. Threatened every moment with 
death, he believed his time was come, and encouraged 
himself by singing, "Safe in the arms of Jesus." They 
dragged him at last into a hut, where they flung him down, 
and left him. He was not physically a strong man, and he 
was wholly disabled by this treatment. He soon discovered 
that it was by order of the king, but only anticipated a 
week's detention. His own cook was suffered to bring 
him food, and his Bible, and writing materials. "My God, 
I am thine ! " was his constant exclamation. Eight days 
passed; bruised, strained, and consumed by fever, the 
bishop could only find comfort in the Psalms, Psalms 
XXV, xxvii, and xxx being his mainstay. 

Luba, the chief of Usogo, was said to have one thousand 
wives; bevies of these ladies came every day to inspect the 



UGANDA. 201 

bishop. "It is not pleasant," he records, "to be examined 
like a caged lion in the Zoo." 

At last, on October 29, he was told he would be released, 
and was summoned to leave his prison. After two hours' 
rapid walking, under guard, he saw his men, not as he 
expected to see them, with their loads, their guns, and 
happy faces, but all bound and prisoners. Then he knew 
his fate, though, let us hope, he did not anticipate theirs. 

He was halted before them in an open space, and stripped 
of his clothing. Then he was made to kneel down. His 
last words were: "Tell the king that I die for Uganda. 
My death will have opened the road." Then the spears 
were thrust into his body. His porters were all massacred, 
and their bodies left beside that of their master. One 
only, after some hours, rose, as it were from the dead. 
His wounds were ghastly, but he dragged himself to a 
hut, whose inhabitants fed him and tended him. 

The missionaries were arrested a few days later, and 
threatened with death unless they told who had broken 
the king's command and had informed them of the death 
of the bishop. It was Father Lourdel who had told them, 
and he was present, but of course they would not betray 
him. "What if I kill you?" said the king; "What would 
Queeni do ? Was she able to touch Lukongo and Mirambo, 
who killed white men? What could she, or all Bulaga 
(Europe) do together? How could they come? Could 
they fly? " Father Lourdel now kindly attempted a diver- 
sion in their favor. He said : " If you killed these white 
men, then I should not care to stay in your country." "If 
I killed them," was the answer, "should I spare you?" 

However, the interview ended without any tragedy. 
Mwanga was tired of threatening. The church grew 
rapidly in this time of trouble. Some of the leading 
chiefs came by night to be baptized. It was like the 
days of the early martyrs, of whom they had never heard. 

Mr. O' Flaherty fell ill, and was allowed to leave the king- 
dom. Mackay and Ashe remained. One of their converts 



202 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

at this time was Walakugu, the king's blacksmith, an office 
which, like that of Master of the Buckhounds in England, 
denotes a high position. 

"He was," says Mr. Ashe, "one of the most intelligent 
Africans I have ever known. Mackay, when making a 
cofhn for the queen mother, became acquainted with him. 
He afterwards visited Mackay and listened most attentively 
to all he told him. It was the revealing of a new and 
wonderful idea to him, and the opening up of a hope trans- 
cending anything of which he had ever before dreamed, 
and he cried out: 'How is it that when we were making 
the queen's coffin you told me none of these things? ' " 

At this time the Russian traveller, Dr. Junker, who had 
been with Emin in Equatoria, arrived in Uganda. He was 
anxious to plead for the Christians before the king, but was 
dissuaded, as, if Mwanga grew angry, it might involve his 
own life. 

On Easter day, 1886, there was a report that all Christians 
were to be seized. Twenty assembled to communion at the 
morning service, ten in the afternoon, and at night fifteen 
communed together, the last communion for most of them. 
On May i the storm burst forth with awful fury upon Prot- 
estants and Catholics alike. One of the first to fall was a 
young Roman Catholic reader. Not one accused of being 
a Christian seems to have denied his faith. One man being 
asked if there were any Christians concealed in his house, 
made answer, "I myself am a Christian." 

At this juncture Monsignor Livinhac, the vicar apostohc 
for East Africa, arrived on the lake. He had once had 
Mwanga for his pupil, and it was hoped his influence might 
be of some avail in saving the lives of the Christians who 
were in prison. Instead of this, however, on hearing the 
news of Monsignor's approach, Mwanga at once put to death 
several of the Fathers' favorite pupils. It is needless to 
dwell further on such sad details. Father Lourdel remon- 
strated with the prime minister, saying, " If anything is 
wrong in our teaching, drive us away ; but do not kill your 



UGANDA, 203 

own children." " No," was the reply, " you are guests, and 
we will not drive you away ; but as many as you teach we 
will kill." 

Walakugu, the blacksmith, and twenty-nine other Chris- 
tians, met the same death as poor little Lugalama, in one 
fell auto-da-fe. Yet all the time chiefs were coming se- 
cretly to the Mission House to be instructed and baptized. 
"What will you do, my friend," asked Mackay of one of 
them, "if you are asked are you a reader? Will you tell a 
lie, and say no?" "I would confess, my friend," was the 
answer. He was baptized and chose the name of Samweli. 

I think I must conclude this terrible history by an anec- 
dote told by Mr. Ashe of this man. He had been appointed 
by the king to go to one of the outlying provinces, and col- 
lect the tribute. While he was away, the persecution, which 
had slackened, broke out afresh. Warnings were sent to him 
not to return, as his was one of the prominent names on the 
proscription. 

" I was awakened," says Mr. Ashe, "about 3 a.m. one morning 
by a low knocking at the door. On opening it I found Samweli, 
another Christian, and a little step-brother of Samweli's. They 
told me of Samweli's great trouble, and asked me what he should 
do? His companions had urged him to fly for his life, but he 
was on the king's service, and he could not feel it right to leave 
his trust, so he had come to consult me. I advised him to flee. 
' The king has the heart of a wild beast,' I said, ' and I think you 
would be fully justified in abandoning your trust.' Samweli sat 
on the ground looking troubled and disappointed. Then he 
asked for a piece of paper, and wrote, ' My friend, I cannot leave 
the things of the king.' Then I cried, 'You are right! You 
must deliver the tribute.' We prayed together, and I took leave 
of him, never thinking to see him again. A few days later, to my 
great delight, he appeared at nightfall, and told me how he had 
gone boldly into the enclosure of the chief, and had deposited 
his loads of cowries, and had then walked out. I said 'You ran 
when you got outside?' 'No,' he said, 'for 1 should have been 
noticed at once. I walked quite slowly till I was out of sight, 
and then I ran as quickly as I could, and so escaped.' " 

Dr. Junker, who had been allowed to come to the court 



204 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

of Uganda, was now permitted to leave. Shortly after Mon- 
signor Livinhac and Father Jeraud, "a very amiable and 
quiet man/' were allowed to leave also. The latter shortly 
after was drowned in Lake Tanganyika, his boat being 
upset by a hippopotamus. 

Mackay and Ashe then endeavored to leave the capital, 
but with little success. " British prestige was at a low ebb, 
for the people imagined Enghshmen might be killed with 
impunity in Africa." 

At last, after strong representations from the British con- 
sul-general at Zanzibar, Ashe was allowed to go. His mis- 
sion was to England, to report the state of Uganda, and to 
create public sympathy for its remote Christians. Mr. Ashe 
took passage across the lake with some Arab traders. In 
many instances he relates that the Arabs had proved help- 
ful and sympathetic to the missionaries in their troubles. 
But their dread of English interference with slave traffic, far 
more than any dislike to Christian teaching, converted them 
into enemies. 

Mr. Ashe's arrival at the coast, after great perils, was 
accomphshed, and in January, 1887, he reached London, 
where his aim was to obtain orders from the Church Mis- 
sionary Society, and report the condition of Uganda. 

Six months later he was back in Africa. By this time a 
new bishop — Bishop Parker — had been appointed to the 
diocese of East Africa, and he was then on his way to 
Uganda. Their caravans joined company, but alas ! when 
they drew near the lake, the bishop, who had suffered much 
from fever on the march, was so sorely stricken by it that 
he died one night in his tent. He and his chaplain Dr. 
Blackburn were buried side by side within two days. When 
news of his death reached England a third bishop — Bishop 
Tucker — was appointed to succeed him. 

Great changes had taken place in Uganda during the 
few months that Ashe had been away. Mwanga's misgov- 
ernment, his raids on his own people, his licentious behavior, 
and his tyranny, had become so intolerable to his subjects 



UGANDA. 205 

that they united to depose him. Conscious that Moham- 
medans and Christians, Protestants and Roman CathoHcs 
ahke, detested him, this conviction in 1888 prompted him 
to a master stroke of butchery. Mackay had been at last 
allowed to visit the missions at the southern end of the lake, 
and two more English missionaries, the Rev. E. C. Gordon 
and Rev. R. H. Walker, had succeeded him. 

"Mwanga planned to assemble the whole of the Christian 
and Mohammedan converts in one place, on some pre- 
tence, and then to transport all of them to an island in the 
lake, and leave themi there to perish. The plot leaked out, the 
would-be victims refused to obey the command, and marched 
on to the capital. Deserted by his soldiers Mwanga fled, 
seized canoes upon the lake, and with only the occupants 
of his own boat, all others having left him, he took refuge 
in an island at the south end of the Nyanza. Meanwhile 
his brother Kiwema was made king, and the Christians, 
being the party most numerous, assumed most of the offices, 
the Mohammedans receiving the rest. The latter were 
jealous of the Christians, and concealing their arms fell on 
the Christian chiefs as they came, after a baranza or levee, 
from the king's enclosure. Many were thus murdered ; the 
Christians, panic stricken, fled the country, and took refuge 
at the southern end of the lake, at Ankoli ; again the lives 
of Europeans (six in number, the French priests and the 
English missionaries) were in great danger, but after a 
period of suspense they were placed together in a boat 
(which shortly after capsized) on the lake, and were thus 
expelled the country. The Arabs were now masters of the 
situation. They tried to make Kiwema conform to the 
initiatory rite of Mohammedanism. He resisted this, and 
at an apparently friendly council killed two Mohammedan 
chiefs with his own hand. Failing, however, to kfll their 
leading official, the Katikiro, he lost courage and fled. 
Karema, another son of 'Mtesa, was now made king. The 
Mohammedans were supreme. Kiwema retreated to the 
northern shores of the lake, and soon after died there." 



206 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

Mwanga meantime had fallen into the hands of an Arab 
trader. He had had some thoughts of fleeing to England, 
because he had heard that the French emperor, when 
defeated by the Germans, had found refuge there. 

It was in the midst of these troubles that Stanley, with the 
Relief Expedition on its way to Zanzibar, arrived in x^nkoH. 
He passed three weeks with Mr. Mackay, and stayed also 
at the neighboring French mission. In his journal he 
wrote : — 

" I feared, when I first heard of the expulsion of the mission- 
aries from Uganda that they had been inconsiderate, and impul- 
sive, and had acted without regard to consequences ; that, though 
their conduct was strictly upright and according to their code, 
their narrowness, and want of sympathy, might have caused 
them to commit errors of judgment ; but when I heard from 
Christian converts the advice Mr. Mackay had given them, 
I perceived that, though the yoke of Mwanga was exceedingly 
heavy on them, the missionaries had in this abstained from 
meddling in the politics of the country. . . . The success of the 
mission to Nyanza is proved by the sacrifices of the converts, by 
their determined resistance to the tyrant, by their successful depo- 
sition of him. . . . The progress of their religion became alarm- 
ing to the Mohammedans and their native sympathizers. . . . 
The boy prince who succeeded the politic 'Mtesa on the throne, 
despite the reputable character the whites had won from all 
classes of the people, regarded them with thoughts foully per- 
verted by unmeasured slander. To his distorted view the mis- 
sionaries were men banded together for the undermining of his 
authority, for sapping the aff"ections and loyalty of his subjects ; 
and for presently occupying the whole of Uganda. The various 
expeditions roaming over the country, the quarrels on the coast 
between the Germans and the Sultan of Zanzibar, the little col- 
onies of Germans studding the coast line, — what could they 
aim at but the forcible conquest of Africa? Hence an era of 
persecution was initiated by the order to burn and slay ; hence 
the auto-da-fe in Uganda ; the murder of Bishop Hannington ; 
the doom that seemed ever to be imminent over the head of the 
faithful and patient Mackay, and the menaced suppression of 
mission work." 

Thus wrote Stanley July 23, 1889. A month later he 
was staying with Mr. Mackay, at a desolate spot on the 



UGANDA. 207 

lake where the missionary was building a mission station, 
repairing a steam boiler for his boat, and engaged with his 
converts in all kinds of activities. 

A month after Stanley had started again upon his journey 
the revolution already mentioned took place in Uganda; 
Kiwema fled ; Karema was made king by the Moham- 
medans, and all was blood and confusion. 

It was then that the missionaries determined to enter into 
negotiations with Mwanga and assist him to recover his 
throne, if he would promise no more to persecute the Chris- 
tians, and to place much of his authority in the hands of the 
chiefs or heads of clans, some of whom were Protestants, 
some Catholics, some heathen, and some Mohammedans. 

Mwanga accepted the terms; some say that in proof of 
his sincerity he consented to be baptized. The mission- 
aries took no part in the fighting, but Mr. Stokes, a trader, 
led the Christian army, Karema and his Mohammedans 
were completely routed, and, on October 5, 1889, Mwanga 
was again seated on the ■ throne. Karema tried to take 
refuge with Kabba Rega, in Unyoro, but that potentate 
declined to receive him. He collected around him a 
small armed band of followers, but soon afterwards died. 

The Christians, being now victorious, distributed the 
offices of the kingdom among themselves. They were 
already divided into two political parties with opposite 
views of policy, — the Wa-Ingleza, or Protestants, the Wa- 
Franza, or the converts of the French Fathers. The Wa- 
Ingleza, with their missionaries, were anxious to see British 
power established in the country, so as to put an end to 
civil war; the Wa-Franza, who, under Father Lourdel, had 
great influence with the king, discouraged the advent of all 
Europeans, and desired that guns should be imported, so 
that the natives might be well armed, — "not considering," 
as Captain Lugard subsequently remarked, "that to place 
firearms in the hands of natives was to foster civil war." 
A third influence was that of the trader, Mr. Stokes, who 
wanted to make himself the great man of Uganda, and sell 



208 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

his influence to any Europeans who might appear in the 
country. The Mohammedans were for the moment sub- 
dued but neither their strength nor their spirit was broken. 

By this time the Germans and the Enghsh had made a 
treaty defining the boundaries of German East Africa and 
British East Africa, an arrangement which gave to England 
the kingdoms of Uganda and Unyoro, British East Africa 
being bounded on the west by the Free State of Congo. 

No sooner was the treaty with Germany, of July i, 1890, 
effected, than the Imperial British East African Company 
engaged the services of Captain F. D. Lugard, an officer of 
the English army, who had served with distinction in Indian 
campaigns, to take charge of an expedition to Uganda, and 
force an acknowledgment of their "protection" by its kings 
and chiefs, by making them sign a treaty in conformity with 
the Anglo-German arrangement, and to endeavor to restore 
peace and order among the various factions that since 
'Mtesa's death had distracted the country. 

Captain Lugard reached Mengo, the capital of Uganda, in 
December, 1 890. In February of that year, in the midst of his 
varied career of usefulness, Mr. Mackay had died at Usam- 
biro, and all parties were deprived of his usefulness, his 
influence, and his experience. 

Captain Lugard determined to take from the first a stand 
with King Mwanga which should show him that he meant 
to be treated as at least an equal. He crossed into his 
country (through Usogo) without asking permission, and 
having arrived at the capital, chose his own camping- 
ground, and fixed his own time for visiting his Majesty. 
The interview was satisfactory, the Englishman was scrupu- 
lously courteous and observant of the etiquette of the court 
of Uganda, and especially polite to the French Fathers and 
their chief converts, whom he trusted to convert into friends 
and alHes. During the past month, disputes had grown very 
bitter between Catholics and Protestants. The zeal that can 
endure martyrdom is little disposed, as history shows us, to 
practice toleration. The most cruel persecutor of the Hugue- 




CAPTAIN F. D. LUG AND. 



UGANDA. 209 

nots in the Cevennes was a priest who had returned from 
China, where he had bravely suffered tortures unspeakable 
at the hands of the heathen. 

Of Mwanga, Captain Lugard said after his first interview : — 

" His dominant motive was a thirst for arbitrary power. 
He had been deprived of that power in a great degree, and 
was now anxious to recover it by playing off the various 
parties within his kingdom, and without, one against the 
other. His antagonism to European influence rose not from 
high patriotism, but from a fear lest such exercise of despot- 
ism as was left him should be curtailed. But in particular 
he was opposed to the British, and would infinitely have pre- 
ferred German or French domination, because his craven 
heart was tormented by an ever-present fear, that vengeance 
must come from us for the murder of Bishop Hannington. 
This fear, I believe, grew into a living terror, when he found 
he had to deal with a man who would not cringe to him. I 
was told that his dreams were haunted by these spectres of 
vengeance, of which he looked on me as the embodiment. 
He thought I was but biding my time, and it is therefore but 
little to be wondered at that he both feared and detested 
me, and did all he could to thwart me." 

During the first six months of Captain Lugard's stay in 
Uganda his chief object was to get the king and his chiefs 
to sign a paper acknowledging the right claimed by the 
Imperial British East African Company under the Anglo- 
German arrangement of July, 1890, to manage the affairs of 
Uganda. The idea of the company seems to have been, to 
place the native ruler in much the same position as an Indian 
Maharajah with a British resident at his court, who should 
be answerable to the English government for the affairs of 
his kingdom. With this difference, however, that the resi- 
dent in British India has all the power of his country at his 
back, while his representative in Uganda would be in a posi- 
tion of isolation. 

To this proposed arrangement the king was naturally 
unwilHng to consent. The French Fathers also were op- 
p 



210 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

posed to it. It would give the Imperial British East African 
Company a certain right to interfere in their affairs ; nor 
was it long before the vexed question of slavery intruded 
into the matter. It had been always the custom of Roman 
Catholics to receive children (boys especially) either by 
gift or purchase, into their missions and to bring them up 
as Catholics. 

By the decree made at Brussels, 1891, all slavery was to 
be discountenanced by Enghsh officials in Africa, and in the 
eyes of Captain Lugard the children and women harbored 
in the missions held the position of slaves. There were 
such boys sheltered also in the Euglish Mission House at 
Mengo, but the missionaries were instructed to receive no 
such gifts, and under no circumstances to make such pur- 
chases ; as the status of such children would be the illegal 
one of slaves. This very doctrinaire way of treating the 
subject led to a great deal of trouble. 

Great difference of opinion also divided the Wa-Inglesa 
and the Wa-Franza on the subject of firearms. Captain 
Lugard wished to prohibit all natives from owning or buying 
guns, unless they had been delivered to them in time of 
war, by some proper authority, which would reclaim them 
when war was over. The French Fathers would have 
preferred to get rid of foreign soldiers (the SomaH and 
Soudanese, for example), and to arm the natives, forgetting 
possibly that savage warriors not under discipline would 
lose no time in turning their guns against each other. 

Mwanga disHked putting the tribute paid him by his out- 
lying provinces into the hands of the English company. 
Captain Lugard knew that the company, suffering from 
financial embarrassment, and having been at great expense 
to keep up its relations with Uganda, could not afford to 
abandon its claim on the finances. 

There were also disputes concerning land titles. When 
a revolution had taken place the lands of the defeated 
party had been confiscated, and houses and estates changed 
hands. This led to endless complications, and to great 



UGANDA. 211 

complaints among the Wa-Franza ; while ignorant converts, 
attacking, in their zeal, symbols they did not understand, 
snatched crosses from the necks of their Roman Catholic 
fellow Christians. Daily excited by these disputes, the two 
parties were repeatedly upon the verge of war. Captain 
Lugard lived in a strongly entrenched camp called Kampala, 
and he did his best to treat the French Fathers with consid- 
eration and courtesy ; a courtesy and consideration returned 
by them and by some of the leading chiefs who were 
Roman Catholic Christians. That he was impartial is 
proved by the complaints of the English missionaries that 
he " snubbed " them, and lent ear to " the too fascinating 
Fathers," and by complaints sent home by the Fathers that 
he was entirely under the influence of the English mission- 
aries, which complaints were widely circulated by the French 
press. Mwanga all the time was watching his chance to 
regain his lost authority by playing off one faction against 
the other ; above all he desired to acquire guns by under- 
hand dealings with Stokes, who was forbidden to import 
them. 

The Mohammedans in the meantime had set up a king in 
opposition to Mwanga, his uncle Mbogo, brother of 'Mtesa, 
who was one of their converts. Under him, and in alliance 
with Kabba Rega, they made continual raids into Uganda, 
watching their chance to dethrone Mwanga, and effect a 
revolution, which would overthrow alike the Europeans 
and the Christians. 

Mwanga desired to send an army of his Waganda against 
these people ; and the Wa-Franza and Wa-Inglesa, having 
been partially pacified. Captain Lugard agreed to join the 
expedition with the force of Zanzibaris, Somalis, and Soudan- 
ese under his command. 

An account of this campaign would be of little interest. 
It was not very decisive, though the Mohammedans were 
worsted. At one time proposals of peace were almost on 
the point of being accepted. The Mohammedans were to 
receive a fertile tract of country and to settle upon it, form- 



212 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

ing an outlying province of the kingdom of Uganda ; but 
they were to give up their firearms (a somewhat hard con- 
dition under the circumstances) and dehver their king 
Mbogo into the hands of the EngUsh, for they decUned to 
give him up to his nephew Mwanga. 

The next six months of Lugard's stay he passed in an 
enterprise beyond the Umits of Uganda. One of his various 
troubles was the difficulty of procuring recruits, to be some- 
times used as porters, sometimes as soldiers. His men 
were almost all Mohammedans, nevertheless they fought for 
him faithfully against their co-religionists. The Zanzibaris or 
Swahilis (for these are identical terms) were grudged him 
by the company, who continually demanded that they should 
be sent back to Zanzibar, where they were needed on the 
coast as porters. How to replace them was a difficulty. 
Lugard bethought him of a report that a large body of 
Soudanese were encamped at Kavallis, the remnant of the 
Egyptian garrisons in Equatoria, who had failed to reach 
Stanley in time to accompany the Rehef Expedition. They 
had been at Kavallis two years, raising cotton for clothing and 
depending for their food supply on the surrounding country. 

The history of Captain Lugard's second six months' stay in 
East Africa, as agent of the company, is that of his deter- 
mination to make his way to Kavallis ; his endeavor to 
enlist these Soudanese to recruit his army ; and the story of 
how he escorted their main body till they could reach the 
coast j where they met with no welcome from the Egyptian 
government. 

About this time came news from Emin Pasha. He was 
known to be in command of an expedition in the country of 
the two Nyanzas, and sent his second in command. Major 
Stiihlmann, into Uganda, where his relations with Captain 
Lugard had been pleasant and cordial. News now came 
that the pasha was entering British territory with a large fol- 
lowing, without asking permission, which surprised Captain 
Lugard, as the Germans were officially punctiUous in the 
observance of boundaries. Emin was in fact on his way to 



UGANDA. 2 1 3 

Kavallis, hoping to secure reinforcements from these very 
Soudanese. 

Captain Lugard, who had not read Stanley's book, and 
who still shared the enthusiasm for Erain which preceded the 
return of the Relief Expedition, says in his diary : " From 
the time that we had crossed Emin's track the natives fled 
at our approach, the houses were deserted, and it was with 
the greatest difficulty I could induce a few men to stop and 
speak to me, for all feared and distrusted the white man. 
I am told Emin stayed here for a month, and took food by 
force the whole time, and paid for nothing. I think I can 
say that where we have been, the people have learned to 
know and to trust us, and future travellers will find confi- 
dence and friendship, not terror and distrust, as on the track 
of the Germans." 

The objects of Captain Lugard on this expedition were 
fourfold. First, to secure possession of a certain salt lake 
which he thought might be made a commercial centre ; 
secondly, to secure recruits ; thirdly, to build a fort on the 
western extremity of the Enghsh boundary; fourthly, to 
make some settlements which, when the promised railroad 
should be built, might facilitate trade with the inland 
country. There were three white men in his party, — him- 
self, Mr. Grant, and a doctor named Macpherson. ° 

The English expedition was welcomed by the refugees at 
Kavallis with great joy and kissing of hands and hand- 
shaking with Shukri Aga (formerly an officer in Equatoria) 
and with Lugard's Soudanese. " Every one talked at the 
same time, and congratulated each other, every one seemed 
temporarily to have gone out of his mind." 

As no part of the history of Europe in Africa is probably 
so interesting as that which relates to Stanley and Emin 
Pasha, I shall here quote largely from Captain Lugard, who 
himself quotes from the London " Times : " — 

"When Stanley arrived at Lake Albert he was joined by 
Emin and a portion of the Equatorial garrison. Selim Bey, 
Emin's deputy, was then despatched to complete the evacuation 



214 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

of the province, but there was much delay, and Stanley, suspecting 
treachery, in the end departed for the coast, leaving Selim Bey, 
and a considerable number of Emin's followers, behind. Selim 
however, was faithful to his trust, and concentrated the whole of 
his garrisons and their people at Wadelai. But they proved so 
numerous that it was impossible to transport them in the little 
steamer. Meantime the rebels attacked Selim, and learning 
from deserters from Stanley's camp where he had buried the 
ammunition brought for Emin, and left at Kavallis, they sent an 
expedition which secured it. The majority of Selim's people, 
hearing that Stanley had gone on without them, deserted to 
Fadi Maula, the rebel commander. With the few followers that 
remained to him he reached Kavallis ; there he planted the 
Egyptian flag, and hoped that rehef would be sent to him event- 
ually from the coast. Meantime the troops of Fadi Maula, sus- 
pecting him, with reason, of making friends with the dervishes, 
who held Rejaf on the Nile, the outlying post of the khalifa, 
refused to sanction an agreement he had made to receive an 
embassy at Wadelai from the dervishes. They fired on them 
as they approached Wadelai, instead of joining them, and, after 
a sharp engagement, mutinied against Fadi Maula, who had 
shown them such bad faith, and marched off to join Selim at 
Kavallis. They quitted Wadelai in March, 1891 — a force of 
eight hundred well-armed men, with plenty of ammunition, and 
upwards of ten thousand camp followers, men, women, and chil- 
dren. They were forty days journeying to Kavallis, suffering 
dangers and privations of every description. Shortly before 
this, Emin Pasha and Dr. Stuhlmann arrived, with a force of 
about three hundred Zanzibaris. Selim Bey and his party wel- 
comed them warmly, believing that at last the long-expected relief 
had come ; but to their great disappointment Emin informed 
them that he had joined the German service ; that it was useless 
for Selim and his party to expect any relief, and that he had 
better unite his forces with him and take service under the Ger- 
mans. Selim Bey represented that being an Egyptian subject, 
and his men soldiers in the Egyptian government's service, he 
could not possibly accede to his request. Emin did not dare to 
proceed to Wadelai, which was then held by the officers and men 
who had previously mutinied and imprisoned him. He stated 
his intention of exploring the country to the west and north- 
west, and called for volunteers to accompany him. Some forty 
men joined him, and he set out on his journey, but most of 
those who had volunteered deserted in a few days. . . . Since 
leaving Wadelai in March, 1891, the refugees, up to the time of 
Lugard's arrival, had had no certain news from Equatoria. They 



UGANDA. 2 1 5 

said that all was chaos and civil war in the province, but the 
dervishes were not in possession, and had only a footing in 
Rejaf, one hundred and fifty miles to the north ; that Fadi 
Maula had probably joined them, being afraid to unite with 
Selim and return to Egypt, because he had led the rebellion and 
imprisoned Emin." 

To Captain Lugard, Selim related how he had grown old 
in the service of the Khedive, and said that nothing would 
induce him to swerve from his allegiance, but that if the 
Captain had the Khedive's permission, he would willingly 
join the company's forces ; without it he would serve under 
no other flag. 

It was finally arranged that Captain Lugard should send 
letters to the Khedive stating the case, and requesting his 
permission ; that meantime Selim should enlist under 
Lugard' s orders and serve him till the Khedive's answer 
arrived. There was great joy among Selim's people at the 
prospect of their release from savagedom, and their return to 
the status of civilized soldiery. So great preparations were 
set on foot, preparing food for the journey. 

There were in all between seven and eight thousand per- 
sons. Very few of these called themselves privates, almost 
all having given themselves brevet rank as officers. There 
were six hundred armed fighting men, each of whom had an 
average of eleven followers. But a few of the highest rank 
had followers to the number of one hundred. 

Their enthusiasm and delight at leaving Kavallis were 
intense. They appeared fanatical in their loyalty to the 
Khedive. Captain Lugard's plan was to divide the force, 
and march them in two companies, building forts along the 
route in which to station about two thousand at a time. 

It is needless to tell the story of their march. When 
letters arrived from Egypt, the Khedive gave the troops a 
full release from their allegiance, and declined to be held 
responsible for their back pay. 

With about twelve hundred people, viz., six hundred Sou- 
danese fighting men with their wives and followers, including 



2l6 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

three hundred and fifty of what were designated as " spare 
wives and children," and two hundred and fifty of the orig- 
inal expedition, Lugard returned to Uganda, to be met by 
letters that caused him the deepest consternation and dis- 
appointment. Uganda was to be evacuated. The Imperial 
British East African Company had not means to keep up its 
influence in so remote and isolated a kingdom. Doubtless 
the directors were unaware of the chaos and anarchy which, 
as matters stood, would follow the withdrawal of the English 
protection. But such were the orders. 

Not mine to reason why, 
Not mine to make reply, 
Some one has blundered 

was the thought of the unfortunate captain. "The Com- 
pany," said his despatches, " cannot keep up the expense of 
Uganda." Under these circumstances, who was to pay the 
Soudanese recruited at Kavallis? Mr. Williams, who had 
been left in charge at Uganda during Lugard's absence, 
came forward at this crisis. He heard the news of the 
intended evacuation with consternation, and said it cotdd not 
be done. He should be ashamed to hold up his head in any 
society of gentlemen if he were involved in such gross 
breaches of faith as this would lead to, and he said at once, 
in confidence, that he had some money of his own that he 
could command, and he would give that, and every penny 
he had in the world, sooner than break faith by leaving 
unpaid the Soudanese who had put themselves under their 
protection. 

Happily the question was solved without such sacrifice. 
On January 7, 1892, another mail arrived from England, 
reversing the order for evacuation, and giving permission to 
continue another year, so as to gain time for public opinion 
in England to declare itself. 

On reaching the old entrenched fort, Kampala, in 
Mwanga's capital, Lugard found that all kinds of troubles 
had occurred during his absence. The Wa-Franza or 



UGANDA. 217 

French party, and the Wa-Inglesa or EngUsh party, were 
ready to fly at each other's throats, not so much on the 
ground of rehgious differences, as on grounds of pohtical 
dissension, while the Mohammedans, under their king 
Mbogo, and in alhance with Kabba Rega, made continual 
trouble on the frontier. Mwanga had quarrelled with the 
French Fathers, and professed a desire to become a 
Protestant. 

It is a sad story and not worth telling. The leaders, 
Englishmen and Frenchmen, and some chiefs of either 
party, tried to make peace ; but the passions of the 
factions were too strong for them. The murder of a 
Protestant by a Wa-Franza was the immediate occasion of 
an outbreak. The French mission station was burned. All 
Europeans, including the French Fathers, with the miscel- 
laneous population of their mission, took refuge in Kampala. 
The king fled to one of the islands in the lake. 

While war between the factions was at its height the Mo- 
hammedan party on the frontier conceived that the opportu- 
nity had arrived for attacking the Christians of both parties 
and eff'ecting a revolution. They tried to get the Soudanese 
from Kavallis to join them, but these men, though Moham- 
medans, remained faithful, saying that Captain Lugard had 
rescued them, and that they would fight against all who 
fought against him. 

Thus foiled, the Mohammedans offered to make peace 
with the company's white men ; but at first nothing came 
of the proposal. 

Lugard next proposed to the Fathers, as a solution of 
the Wa-Franza and Wa-Inglesa difficulties, that a province 
should be assigned to the French party, where they might 
live under their own rule, with the king of Uganda as their 
sovereign, and the " protective " influence of the company 
over all. But affairs were complicated by reports that the 
Germans, under Major Peters, were offering assistance to 
the Wa-Franza party. 

Towards the end of March, however, peace seemed in a 



2l8 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

fair way to be made. The gusts of passion had blown them- 
selves out. Mwanga was induced, or more properly was 
compelled, to return to his capital. He came in fear and 
trembling, not doubting he should be killed or imprisoned, 
and was as much surprised as overjoyed to find himself 
hailed with acclamations by all classes of his people. He 
rode into Mengo on a man's back, escorted by Captain 
Lugard on his pony. The Roman CathoHc Waganda 
embraced the Protestants, and all was a scene of congratu- 
lation and joy. 

Captain Lugard quitted Uganda at the end of his third 
six months of office, in August, 1892. Before he left he 
had the satisfaction of settling both the French party and 
the Mohammedan faction in their own provinces, and of 
receiving from the latter Mbogo their king. The two 
royal personages, uncle and nephew, met, and publicly 
embraced each other. This peace with the Mohammedans 
was largely brought about by Selim Bey. The close of 
Selim's history is a sad one. Captain Macdonald who 
succeeded Lugard in Uganda conceived mistrust of him, and 
accused him of treachery, sending him to the coast a pris- 
oner. On his way he died, being already far gone with dropsy. 

"To me," says Lugard, "it is a sad contemplation that 
this veteran, selected by Gordon for an important command 
in Equatoria, whose valor saved Dafile ; against whom no 
charge of disloyalty had ever been proved amidst all the 
faithlessness of the Soudanese troops ; and who had proved 
at the risk of his life his loyalty to me, should have been 
hurried off in a dying state, discredited and disgraced, to 
succumb upon the march a prisoner and an outcast." 

It is not to be supposed that the Wa-Franza or the 
Mohammedan party settled into their provinces without 
great complaints and ardent endeavors to get further exten- 
sion of territory. This, in the case of the Mohammedans, 
was not allowed; but subsequently, in April, 1893, other 
considerable territories and an island in the lake, were 
accorded to the Catholics. 



UGANDA. 219 

It has also been arranged, since an English Roman Catho- 
lic bishop — Bishop Hanlon — has been appointed by Car- 
dinal Vaughan to the diocese of Uganda, that the Roman 
Catholic field for mission work shall lie in the eastern 
provinces of Uganda, and the Church Missionary Society 
shall conduct its operations to the westward. The bishop 
is to reside at Mengo, the king's capital. How this arrange- 
ment will work it is impossible as yet to say. It was only 
concluded on April 20, 1895. 

Meantime, in the spring of 1893, the Imperial British 
East African Company yielded up its authority in Uganda 
to the English government, and Sir Gerald Portal was sent 
to compose troubles, to report upon the country, and to 
pave the way for the new administration of Wagandian 
affairs. 

He spoke of the country as being for the most part a 
close agglomeration of steep rounded hills varying from three 
hundred to six hundred feet above the level of Lake Victoria, 
and divided one from another by swampy valleys contain- 
ing either a stagnant marsh overgrown by tall rushes and 
papyrus grass, or a sluggish muddy stream oozing through 
dense masses of tropical vegetation and tangled under- 
growth. The hillsides, and such parts of the valleys as are 
not swamps, are undoubtedly fertile, and would bear with 
great luxuriance any crop that might be put into them. 
" In comparatively recent times the whole country appears 
to have been extensively cultivated, in every direction, but 
the result of the wholesale massacres conducted by the 
present King Mwanga and his predecessor 'Mtesa, and of 
the successive religious wars by which Uganda has been 
devastated, is that at present there is no cultivation except 
in the immediate neighborhood of villages, and nothing 
appears to be grown throughout the country except bananas, 
plantains of many kinds, sweet potatoes, and a few beans." 

The population of Uganda has been very variously esti- 
mated from five millions to two hundred and fifty thousand ; 
and the Church Missionary Society has claimed one million 



220 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY, 

converts. In a recent report it speaks of having two hun- 
dred churches, each with a considerable membership, and 
nearly all of them under the charge of native pastors ; the 
most reliable information, however, procurable by Sir Gerald 
Portal was that the population of Uganda was not quite five 
hundred thousand souls. 

Into the causes of the war of religion in 1892, or the re- 
lation between the Wa-Franza and the Wa-Ingleza Sir 
Gerald declines to enter. After that war the province of 
Buddu was assigned to the CathoHc Mission by Captain 
Lugard, and three smaller provinces were given to the Mo- 
hammedans. Six provinces remained to the Protestants, 
and Mwanga, who had been by turns a heathen, a Moham- 
medan, again a heathen, and then a Roman Catholic, now 
professed himself a Protestant. In these changes of faith 
he was joined by a large number of chiefs and sub-chiefs of 
every degree, who held or expected ofiice under him. Their 
subordinates, in turn, according to native custom, professed 
the faith of their superiors, and this accounts for the im- 
mense increase of Protestant converts in Uganda, as recently 
reported by the Church Missionary Society. 

We may consider such professions of the Christian faith 
to indicate a very inferior kind of Christianity ; nevertheless 
it breaks up the soil of heathenism. It prepares the way 
for better Christianity in succeeding generations, and after 
all it was much in the same way that Christianity was estab- 
lished among our ancestors, whether they were Saxons, 
Norsemen, Teutons, or Gaels. In our own age we are apt 
to forget the early history of Christian Missions. Early 
mission work among the heathen natives of northern and 
western Europe, was carried on by compulsory baptisms at 
the command of conquerors ; and by the more genuine con- 
version of heathen kings, who imposed their new faith upon 
our forefathers. Missionaries first converted the kings, 
then followed in the wake of their rough dealings with their 
subjects. 

We are apt to imagine that all the world was converted 



UGANDA. 221 

by such missionary work as St. Paul, St. Philip, and the 
Eleven Apostles did among the Greeks, Jews, and barba- 
rians of the Roman Empire. But the case was far different 
in Western Europe, and the methods of conversion were 
not the same. The hand of God had been preparing the 
soil for centuries for the introduction of the faith of Christ 
in Western Asia and in Eastern Europe. Those who study 
history may see this for themselves. The civilized portions 
of the world under the Roman Empire were made ready, 
nay eager, for gospel teaching. The case of rude unculti- 
vated heathen men was different. So it is with the Wa- 
ganda and other tribes in Central Africa. Nor need we 
stand amazed at the total absence of any ideas of tolerance 
among them. Zeal always comes first ; tolerance is of 
much slower growth. And after tolerance comes a sense 
of Christian fellowship with all of any creed, "who," as St. 
Paul says in his definition of a united Christian Church, 
"love the Lord Jesus Christ with sincerity." All history 
shows us that the more keen a convert is in his own 
convictions, the less is he able to put up with differing 
keen convictions in others. The hne of thought the world 
is taking in our day is quite a new one. It may be com- 
pressed into a few words : " God is the All-Father ; and 
all are brothers who love and seek to serve Him." As 
" one army of the living God " we march in different regi- 
ments and under different standards, but all have the same 
foe to fight and the same cause to be won. 

In Uganda, however, the religious question is complicated 
with politics, and indeed it has been so in civilized Europe 
almost up to our own day. Sir Gerald Portal says : — 

" The political situation accounts in a great measure for the 
importance attached by the bishops and political leaders of 
the opposing parties to the possession of certain chieftain- 
ships or provincial governorships. The acceptance by a 
great chief of the Protestant creed may mean the addition 
of one thousand fighting men to the Protestant cause, while 
the appointment of a Catholic governor to the command of 



222 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

a province may mean that every chief, sub-chief, and villager 
in that province has to make up his mind quickly between 
embracing the same faith or being forthwith turned adrift, 
and deprived of his house, dignity, and position." 

Sir Gerald Portal having stayed about two months in 
Uganda,^ in the spring of 1893, left the country under the 
command of Captain Macdonald as acting commissioner for 
the English government. This commissioner appears to have 
been possessed by an idea that the Mohammedans (whose 
power Sir Gerald had considered he had put down) were on 
the point of being joined by Kabba Rega, the Manyuema, 
and the Soudanese troops enlisted at Kavallis, to effect the 
overthrow of the English government. This led to the 
harsh treatment of SeHm Bey, already mentioned. Captain 
Macdonald's fears seem to have had small foundation. 

In April, 1893, an agreement signed by " Alfred, Bishop of 
Equatorial Africa," *'J. Hirth, vicar-apostolic of Nyanza," 
" G. H. Portal, Her Majesty's commissioner and consul-gen- 
eral, " and "J. R. L. Macdonald, Captain R. E." made a 
settlement between Protestants and CathoHcs in six articles, 
the last of which was, that " the sons of Karema should be 
brought at once to the capital, and should reside in the 
charge of the resident, and within the precincts of the Fort 
Kampala." This stipulation has given rise to endless trouble. 
The boys, Josephino and Augustino, are sons of Mwanga's 
deceased brother, at one time a competitor for his throne. 
On the death of their father they fell into the hands 
of a Mohammedan chief, from whom they were rescued 
by Roman Catholic missionaries in the west of Uganda. 
Minute were the stipulations made with Colonel Colville, 
who had succeeded Captain Macdonald as resident com- 
missioner, as to how they should be surrounded by Roman 
Catholics, and carefully educated in that faith, if they were 
brought to Kampala and given up to the English govern- 
ment \ endless too were the promises made by Monsignor 

1 Sir Gerald unhappily died from the effects of African fever, very 
shortly after his return to England. 



UGANDA, 223 

Hirth that they should be placed in the hands of the Eng- 
lish. The value of these boys to the English government 
is, that they seem to be the only lawful descendants of 
'Mtesa, and as such are successors to Mwanga on his throne. 
At last, on April 15, 1894, Colonel Colville forwarded this 
despatch to the Foreign office : — 

" I have the honor to inform you that on the loth instant it 
was decided in full council of king and chiefs that the two 
young princes, nephews of the king, who are being kept in Ger- 
man territory by Monsignor Hirth, having been so long under 
foreign tuition, are ineligible as heirs to the throne of Uganda." 

Some months later, however, they were brought back, but 
what may be their position now it is hard to determine. 
Uganda, at the close of November, 1894, was, with the full 
consent of Mwanga and his chiefs, proclaimed a British 
protectorate. 

Mwanga has, in spite of his apparent docility, embarrassed 
his advisers by desiring to make another change in his faith ; 
he wishes, he says, to become a Roman Catholic. It will 
be easily seen, from what has been said already, how much 
trouble this might cause in Uganda and to the English 
administration. 

Colonel Colville, during 1894, was involved in a danger- 
ous and bloody war with Unyoro. War more or less, in- 
deed, had been waged with Kabba Rega since 1891. 

The campaign was opened by Major Owen, who with a 
force of Zanzibaris and Soudanese gained an important 
victory in December, 1893. In January, 1894, Kabba Rega's 
capital was entered but found deserted. He himself had 
fled, narrowly escaping being taken prisoner. When the 
Unyoro war was ended a British reconnoitering party was 
sent up Lake Albert to Wadelai, under Major Owen. 
Emin's old capital was held by a native sheikh, with whom 
Major Owen made a treaty of friendship. He planted the 
British flag on Emin's old fort by permission of the sheikh, 
and also on the opposite bank of the Nile. No Europeans 
had been seen in Wadelai since Emin left it. The remnant 



224 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

of the Egyptian army had joined the dervishes. There was 
no news of the Mahdists ; only constant reports that they 
might be coming disturbed the minds of the people. Major 
Owen would have pushed on further, but his orders were 
precise. So he turned back from Wadelai. A second ex- 
pedition, sent under Major Thurston a few months later, 
reported that the people in the Nile Valley were peaceful, 
and were preparing to restore their lands to cultivation. 

Before closing this chapter, much of which seems to re- 
flect little credit on the Christian converts of Uganda after 
their days of persecution ceased, I should like to qualify 
the impression made by the quarrels between the Wa- 
Franza and Wa-Ingleza by quoting a letter written to 
Captain Lugard, shortly after the war ended, by Zechariah, 
one of the converts of the English mission. 

Captain Lugard speaks of him as a type of the new 
regime in Uganda, and he has equally high praise for 
another high official, a chief of the Roman Catholic party. 
Zechariah made part of the expedition to KavaUis, and was 
always intelligent, faithful, and reliable. The captain had 
told Zechariah of the financial difficulties which led to the 
fear that the company might not be able to retain Uganda. 
Zechariah pondered the subject, and addressed to the cap- 
tain the following letter : — 

" You told me that a very great deal of money was being spent 
by the company for our sakes, and you said : ' When I made 
the treaty I wrote in it " The country itself shall return some 
portion of this money little by little." ' But since the country 
has not become in good order, so it could make some returns, 
I myself began to reflect in my own mind ; and I saw that the 
evil came from us. We Waganda are spending the money of 
our friends with no return, nor have we the memories to say : 
all this money which is being spent is for our good, let us then 
do some good to please our friends. We do not consider this 
in the least ; we know but one practice, and that is to beg every 
day. We have not yet learned better. There is nothing in us 
to please the directors of the company, nor are we able to pay 
the money. How can we repay all that has gone in the wages 
of the men who have come to fight for our country for us? In 



UGANDA. 



225 



addition there is the cost of food and the presents you have 
made us. All that we can do is to give you satisfaction that 
you may know we are your children^ and are glad to be under 
the British. But I see a plan myself, my father. I put it out of 
my own mind. Give me an answer, father, whether it is good or 
bad ; you to whom I am greatly attached. My plan is' to try and 
kill elephants and give. the money to the company. Perhaps I 
may thus be able to return my thanks. I will not put the ivory 
into my own property. I have no property. Had I any I 
would have put aside from it sufificient to return my thanks. As 
it is, I will return my thanks according to my ability, and try my 
plan. May God add to your wisdom to arrange all these coun- 
tries rightly. Many salaams. Your friend, Zechariah." 

" When it is remembered," says Captain Lugard, " that 
ivory is the sole wealth in Uganda, with which alone a chief 
can buy the cloth, etc., so dear to his heart, and thatZechariah 
meant himself to lead his men, and to expose his life that 
he might show them an example that would lead to successful 
results, I think the reader will agree with the remarks that 
follow in my diary : '■ I have been at pains to translate this 
letter right through, for it is a remarkable one from a semi- 
savage in Africa. Surely it betokens a sign of progress 
when such a letter is possible? ' " 

Very few particulars have reached us of the last hours of 
Emin Pasha. After his first visit to Kavallis, where he failed 
to secure recruits from the Soudanese, he marched through 
dense forests and foodless lands with no provisions, and 
his men were in great straits. They mutinied at last, and 
Emin was obhged to return to Kavallis, where he found the 
camp deserted. But small-pox, which had swept over the 
country after Lugard and Selim left, decimated his followers. 
He sent Dr. Stiihlmann away with those who were not sick, 
while he himself remained behind. This was at the close of 
1 89 1, — and it is the last really authentic account we have 
of him. No white man was in his party. At the close of 
March, 1892, Lugard received a letter from Captain Lang- 
held, a courteous German officer, telling him of Emin's sad 
position at KavalHs, and asking him to do what he could for 
Q 



226 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

him. Lugard at once despatched a party of Soudanese to his 
rehef. Emin was no longer in the service of the German 
government, which had repudiated all connection with his 
expedition. Before Captain Lugard's party of Soudanese 
could reach KavalHs, news came that Emin had met some of 
Kilonga-Longa's Manyuema and had contracted with them 
to convey him, together with his boxes of specimens of 
natural history, to the West Coast, via the Congo. We 
know what these Manyuema slave-hunters were like, from 
the experience of Parke and Stairs in their society. 

" Later still, as every one knows," says Lugard, " came a 
report that Emin had been killed by the men he had hired to 
protect him. Sad close to this picturesque figure in African 
history. " "I believe Emin," he continues, "to have been 
as kind-hearted a man as ever lived, and a brave one too. 
His almost morbid sensitiveness led him to resent the de- 
scriptions of his character and abilities that had reached 
Europe, and I believe it was the desire to prove himself a 
capable explorer, and refute by his actions what he would 
not deign to reply to in words, which led him to embark on 
this fatal journey." 

His papers, it is reported, have been recovered, and it may 
be hoped that his valuable collections are yet safe. His httle 
daughter Ferida, to the despair of her Abyssinian nurse, has 
been sent home to Germany, to become a well-regulated 
German made he Jt under the charge of her relations. 

In 1892 East Africa claimed another European as its vic- 
tim, whose loss must be sensibly felt among all the tens of 
thousands who read " Darkest Africa," Captain Robert H. 
Nelson, who had taken service with the Imperial British East 
African Company. He was sent by his new employers early 
in 1892 to take charge of Kikuyu, a district lying between 
the coast and the Victoria Nyanza, where he met his sad 
fate. Captain Stairs is also dead. He perished likewise on 
the soil of Africa. Dr. Parke has died in India. The only 
one left of that noble band, except Stanley himself, is the 
gallant and genial Mr. A. J. Mounteney Jephson. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE WAR IN ABYSSINIA.* 

FIVE and twenty years ago it was the fashion to reproach 
England for her numerous little wars. I do not speak 
of wars in India, where the ruling powers have to be con- 
tinually on the alert, because, as General Sir Charles 
Napier bluntly expressed it, "There is deviltry on hand 
in India at every moment;" but the term "little wars" 
was applied commonly to four petty wars in Africa — the 
war with Abyssinia in 1868; the war with Coomassie in 
1873; the Zulu war with Cetewayo in 1877; and the war 
in the Transvaal in 1878 and 1879. 

All these wars fall into the history of " Europe in Africa 
in the Nineteenth Century." I shall speak of them without 
giving much space to their military details. 

The war with Abyssinia seems to have originated in offi- 
cial inadvertence on the part of the British government. 
"The celebrated letter out of which it grew was," says an 
English writer, "to the late expedition what the carrying off 
of Helen was to the siege of Troy." The war cost much 
money and much suffering. It resulted in nothing but the 
enhancement of the prestige of the Anglo-Indian army and 

* For a great deal in this chapter I am indebted to Mr. Stanley's 
letters when, as the war correspondent of the " New York Herald," he 
accompanied the British army. His letters were republished by Messrs. 
Harper in book form in 1874. It is hard to recognize the Mr. Stanley 
whom we know so well, probably the most distinguished and world- 
famous man in this last quarter of the Nineteenth Century, in the some- 
what flippant newspaper reporter who vivaciously relates the events in 
which he took a subordinate part in 1868, three years before he started 
on his expedition to " find Livingstone." 

227 



228 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

the release of certain captives who had good cause to blame 
their own government that they were ever imprisoned. 

Abyssinia is one of the oldest kingdoms in the world. It 
claims to have a history older than the days of the Queen 
of Sheba, and after her to have had a race of sovereigns 
descended from Menilek, her son and the son of King 
Solomon. 

The circumstance of Judaism having formed the religion 
of the people from the time of their conversion from the 
worship of the serpent to the establishment of Christianity 
in the fourth century, sufficiently accounts for the tincture 
of the Mosaic dispensation which is still discernible in the 
country; for example, in the retention of circumcision, 
and the observance of the distinction concerning clean and 
unclean meats. There were large Jewish colonies estab- 
lished in the country, we know not how many years before 
the Christian era. It may have been as early as the days 
of Solomon; it may have been, as the Abyssinians them- 
selves think, when his fleets on the Red Sea brought gold 
from Southern Africa, and spices and rare animals from 
India; or it may not have been till after the dispersion and 
the captivity. 

Abyssinia proper is a country resembling the Oberland of 
Switzerland, or the Scotch Highlands, on a far more savage 
scale. It consists only of mountains with their plateaux 
and their valleys, but there is a low, unhealthy strip of land 
lying along the shore of the Red Sea, which has been 
claimed and at times possessed by Egypt, as far back as 
any modern knowledge of Abyssinian history extends. Its 
chief town is Massowah. As Sir Samuel Baker said in 
reference to its being handed over to the Italians by the 
English government, "We have been very generous with 
what belonged to other people." 

Abyssinia proper was divided into provinces ; in other 
words, into small feudal kingdoms, whose sovereigns were 
only bound to pay a certain tribute into the emperor's 
treasury, and to follow him with their sub-chiefs when he 



THE WAR IN ABYSSINIA. 229 

went to war. The emperor was a man of magnificent titles, 
and for ages was supposed to be a descendant of Solomon 
and Menilek. Then a revolution took place, men or boys 
of other families were placed upon the throne, and lived 
in the royal city of Gondar; but each king was governed 
as a roi faineant, by his Ras, or prime minister, who was 
always the chief of some province, and who had seated him. 
upon the throne. 

There was an old prophecy in Abyssinia, handed down 
from generation to generation, which said that in the ful- 
ness of time a king should arise in Ethiopia, of Solomon's 
lineage, who should be acknowledged to be the greatest 
king on earth; and his power should embrace all Ethi- 
opia and Egypt. He should scourge the infidels out of 
Palestine and purge Jerusalem from all defilers. He should 
destroy all the inhabitants thereof, and his name should 
be Theodorus. 

This prophecy made a great impression on a young man, 
the son of a widow, who, though in humble circumstances, 
was nephew to the governor of Kuara, and descended, as 
he believed, from Menilek. He was born in 18 18, had 
been well educated (so far as Abyssinian education goes) by 
the care of his uncle, but on reaching man's estate he pre- 
ferred a roving life, and was made captain of a band of ban- 
ditti. On his uncle's death he became governor of Kuara, 
and marching against Ras Ali, sovereign of Dembea, dis- 
played so much prowess and such promise of future great- 
ness, that Ras Ali gave him Tavavitch, his daughter, in 
marriage. While she lived her influence over her hus- 
band was unbounded and beneficial. He practised none 
of the degrading vices common among Oriental princes. 
After her death, which took place when she was still young, 
he mourned her sincerely for a time, and then consoled 
himself with dreams of ambition. He conquered Gondar; 
he raised a large army; and the news of his martial prowess 
spreading abroad, the chiefs of the neighboring provinces 
made common cause with him. It was then that he pro- 



230 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

claimed his name to be Theodorus, as it probably was, 
though he had been always known as Kassai, for the 
Abyssinians have a custom of giving a babe in baptism a 
Christian name, which is never brought into common use 
by his friends and family. 

One province after another was conquered, with the 
exception of Tigre, the most northerly, which alone had a 
port upon the sea. 

Theodorus, "Emperor of Ethiopia, by the Power of 
God," was, in 185 1, at the height of his prosperity, and 
probably thought little less of himself than did King 
'Mtesa, who thus addressed Mr. Mackay in their first 
interview : " Mackay, when I go to England God in heaven 
will be witness that I shall take greatness and glory with 
me. Every one will say: 'O ! 'Mtesa is coming! ' when I 
reach England; and when I return: *0! 'Mtesa is coming 
back again ! ' " 

Theodorus refused to dwell in the royal city of Gondar. 
"My head," he said, "shall be my empire; and my tent my 
capital." In time, however, after a successful campaign 
against the Wallo Gallas, a Mohammedan tribe, who had 
settled in southern Abyssinia, he built a fortress upon 
what might well seem to him an impregnable mountain, 
and called it Magdala. 

He was very partial to Europeans ; he treated all travellers, 
especially military men, with kindness and consideration; 
but his chief favorite was Mr. Plowden, Her Majesty's 
consul at Massowah, who, leaving the port to which he 
was accredited, resided with Theodore for five years. 

Theodore could conquer his enemies, but he failed to 
convert them into faithful subjects. "No sooner was he 
conqueror of a rebel province, than he was compelled to 
overrun it. By such wars he was continually harassed, 
and gradually his whole nature changed. He became 
embittered at the ingratitude of the people, whose welfare 
he so ardently desired, and for whom he labored so assidu- 
ously." 



THE WAR IN ABYSSINIA. 23 1 

Russian and German engineers and workmen, attracted 
by his liberalities and his promises, came to him, and hav- 
ing told him of the monster cannon then coming into fash- 
ion in European warfare, they were employed to construct 
for him the most wonderful guns and the most enormous 
mortars they could invent. 

At this time the Church Missionary Society, which already 
had missionaries in Abyssinia, determined to send out a 
band of laymen, who were to assist in extending knowledge 
of the methods of civilization at the same time that they 
endeavored to infuse new life into the national religion. 

Mr. Plowden constantly urged the emperor to send an 
embassy to England, but for a long while Theodore was 
so much engaged in civil wars that he had no time to think 
of foreign relations. In i860, while journeying to Mas- 
sowah, Mr. Plowden was killed by a band of rebels. Theo- 
dore mourned for him greatly, and severely punished his 
murderers. In gratitude for his consideration for the 
consul, Queen Victoria sent him presents; among them a 
revolver, whereon was inscribed on a silver plate : " Pre- 
sented to Theodore, Emperor of Abyssinia, by Victoria, 
Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, for his kindness to 
her servant, Plowden, 1861." These presents were con- 
veyed to Theodore by Captain Cameron, an English army 
officer. He reached Massowah in February, 1862, and 
proceeded to the camp of Theodore, who cordially received 
him, as well as the Rev. Messrs. Stern and Rosenthal, who 
arrived soon after him. 

It has been thought that Theodore's brain about this 
time became unsettled. Human nature rarely bears for 
long the strain of autocratic power. The defection of his 
provinces embittered him greatly, and his whole nature 
seemed to undergo a violent change. Up to this time his 
life had been remarkable for a continence and temperance 
unusual among Oriental princes; now he began to lead a 
very different life, and in his drunken fits his atrocities 
were absolutely fiendish. 



232 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

There was an Abyssinian convent at Jerusalem to which, 
for many years, England had extended British protection. 
Earl Russell, then Secretary for Foreign Affairs, withdrew 
that protection shortly before Captain Cameron reached 
Abyssinia. This greatly enraged the emperor. It was an 
illustration of the proverb : " Penny wise and pound fool- 
ish." It would have cost little to protect the convent, 
whereas the withdrawal of that protection was the first step 
that led to the loss of the confidence of Theodore. 

The subject of an embassy to Queen Victoria was again 
brought forward by Cameron. Theodore wrote a letter to 
the Queen telling her that he intended, as soon as practi- 
cable, to attack the Turks {i.e. the Egyptians), and he enu- 
merated the various causes of complaint he had against 
Abbas Pasha, Said Pasha, and their people. 

In the same letter he expressed a hope that " lasting good- 
will might exist between their two countries, which would 
be to the glory and advantage of both," and requested Her 
Majesty to prepare means by which his ambassadors might 
safely reach England, for, as soon as he should be informed 
that all was ready, his envoys should proceed to the sea- 
coast. 

No notice whatever was taken of this letter. In vain 
Theodore waited for an answer. The only effect it pro- 
duced was to bring Cameron into disgrace with his own 
government. He was ordered to go back to Massowah, 
and told to attend only to his consular duties. It did not, 
of course, suit English policy to countenance or abet any 
attack on Egypt; and besides, Cameron had given umbrage 
to the Egyptian government by too vigorous efforts for the 
suppression of the slave-trade. 

In 1863, when England began to feel apprehensive about 
her supplies of cotton by reason of the war in our Southern 
States, she desired Captain Cameron to go into the equa- 
torial provinces of Egypt contiguous to Abyssinia and report 
upon their capabilities for cultivating cotton. This visit 
was an additional offence to Theodore. In an interview 



THE WAR IN ABYSSINIA. 233 

with Cameron on his return from his trip he said that since 
the Queen of England could send him to visit his enemies, 
the Turks, perhaps to conspire against him, and could not 
write a civil answer to a civil letter, Cameron should not 
be permitted to leave him till an answer came. 

''Three months later Theodore, further exasperated by 
the apparent discourtesy of the English government, ordered 
the servant of Captain Cameron, and two of those of Mr. 
Stern, to be so severely beaten in his presence that two of 
them died the same evening. The poor missionary, moved 
by the spectacle of his servants' torture, put his hand before 
his mouth to repress a cry of horror. This was understood 
by the emperor as a revengeful threat; he at once cried out 
to his men : " Beat that man; beat him as you would a dog; 
beat him, I say ! " Stern was flung on his face and beaten 
till he fainted. Thus commenced his four long years and 
six months of imprisonment." 

Then followed more exasperation, and more imprison- 
ments. One of Theodore's great favorites had been Captain 
Charles Speedy, who, with a young relative, named Kerens, 
had come into the country to shoot elephants. Speedy was 
a man of gigantic stature and of wonderful skill as a swords- 
man. Theodore proposed to him to enter his service, and 
he soon enjoyed the degree of favor that had been accorded 
to Plowden. At last Theodore, in one of his suspicious 
fits, ordered the governor of one of his provinces to arrest 
Speedy while he was engaged in executing some mission. 
The governor attempted to make the arrest, but was deterred 
when he considered Speedy' s strength and prowess. The 
captain executed his mission, and returned to Theodore. 
But he insisted on at once obtaining leave to quit his ser- 
vice. In vain Theodore condescended to implore him to 
remain with him; until, finding that nothing he could say 
would alter his resolution, he paid all the money that was 
due to him, gave him a horse, a shield and spear, and took 
an affectionate leave of him. 

Again, in 1863, letters from the P'oreign office, despatched 



234 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

by the hand of Kerens, were received in Abyssinia, still 
making no mention of Theodore's proposal to send an 
embassy to Queen Victoria. This so exasperated the 
emperor that consul Cameron, the missionaries, and all 
their servants were put in chains, together with poor young 
Kerens, whose offence was aggravated by his having brought 
as a present to the emperor a large rug, the pattern on which 
was considered by Theodore to be a deliberate insult to 
himself, since one of his official titles was the Lion of the 
Tribe of Judah — and the royal beast on the carpet was 
about to fall a victim to a man who wore a turban, like a 
Turk. Kerens was severely flogged, and put in chains 
with the other captives. 

Individual efforts were made to ransom the prisoners, 
and to induce ministers to advise the Queen to write to 
Theodore on their behalf. The petitioners were answered 
calmly that " it is not thought advisable that the Queen 
should write to the Abyssinian emperor." 

Lamentable letters were sent home by the captives, who 
contrived to bribe some of their guards to convey their 
correspondence to Massowah : — 

" In one of the letters Cameron explained at length the causes 
of his captivity and sufferings, and said : ' There is no hope of 
my release unless a letter is sent as an answer to his Majesty.' 
This letter found its way to the ' Times,' and thence through 
all the ramifications of the English and American press. The 
* Times' thundered, and Ministers surrendered. Under the 
storm of popular indignation Her Majesty was advised to write. 
The letter was at once written and sent off." 

The envoy who carried it was Mr. Hormuzd Rassam. 
Mr. Rassam was a native of Mosul, near Nineveh; his fam- 
ily, who were Armenians, had rendered the greatest services 
to Mr. Layard in his early excavations. Mr. Rassam him- 
self, when very young, had been made his secretary and 
assistant; and proved of great help, being a man of no little 
influence among the Arabs of Mesopotamia. He had sub- 
sequently been made Her Majesty's consul-general at Aden, 



THE WAR m ABYSSINIA. 235 

and rendered important services to England by conciliating 
Arab tribes. 

With the Queen's letter, Mr. Rassam proceeded to Mas- 
sowah, where he waited a year before the irate Theodore 
would suffer him to enter Abyssinia, the Foreign office hav- 
ing charged its envoy not to proceed without a safe conduct, 
as his capture would lead to further complications. King 
Theodore said afterwards that he kept Mr. Rassam waiting 
to try if he was as hasty- tempered and ill-mannered as other 
Europeans. At last, in August, 1865, Mr. Rassam received 
permission to enter Abyssinia, and journeyed by a pre- 
scribed route to the king's presence. He had with him two 
English gentlemen, both with French names, Doctor Blanc 
and Lieutenant Prideaux. All the way along their route, 
the envoy and his companions were treated with the great- 
est distinction. Priests came out to greet them with ban- 
ners and processions, and ominous prayers to Heaven for 
their safety. Everywhere they received favorable impres- 
sions of the Abyssinians, and in every incident of their 
journey they perceived how Theodore was feared. The 
captives that they came to rescue were Cameron, Kerens, 
Mr. Stern, a German missionary, his wife and family, and 
the small body of European artisans who had constructed 
for the emperor his monstrous guns and mortars. 

When Mr. Rassam and his party reached Theodore's 
camp, they were received with all possible courtesy and dis- 
tinction. The monarch took one of his capricious fancies 
for Mr. Rassam at once. "The singular mixture of char- 
acteristics in this strange being was very remarkable. No 
one could ever rely on his being twenty-four hours in the 
same mind. He could be gracious and winning to an 
extraordinary degree; ferocious and unreasonable beyond 
belief; one moment he would gloat over the destruction of 
a village and its inhabitants, and the next he would show 
tender care for the safety of women and little children 
crossing a ford. He was a great warrior, but was thought 
to have no talent for organization. He wanted Europeans 



236 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

to carry out his plans, but was naturally jealous of their 
acquiring any influence over him. At one moment he de- 
scribed himself as a poor, ignorant Ethiopian; at another 
he acted as if he were king of kings, and lord of the whole 
earth." 

He promised at once to release the captives, and wrote 
humble apologies to the Queen. There were some delays, 
but at last the captives were handed over to Mr. Rassam. 
The king wrote him an affectionate farewell letter, and 
all was prepared for their departure, when, unhappily, news 
reached King Theodore which changed his purposes. 

Friends of the missionaries, impatient of the repeated 
delays in effecting their release, had despatched a private 
agent. Doctor Beke, with handsome presents for the king, 
and offers of ransom. News of Doctor Beke reached King 
Theodore a few hours after he had given up his prisoners, 
and he at once regretted that he had not made more out of 
them. He seized them again, loaded them with chains, and 
summoning Mr. Rassam, Doctor Blanc, and Lieutenant Pri- 
deaux to his presence, had them also seized and detained 
as captives. Yet even as captives they were treated with 
such consideration that, on one occasion, King Theodore 
with his own hands swept up Mr. Rassam' s room for him. 
Finally, however, they were transferred to Magdala, and 
kept two years in chains, not knowing from moment to 
moment what their fate might be. They suffered, of course, 
terrible strain of mind, but they were not compelled to 
endure privation, and rarely personal violence. Mr. Ras- 
sam, indeed, was not infrequently consulted by King Theo- 
dore, whose confidence he retained, although his prisoner. 
On learning these events, the English government sent an- 
other envoy, Mr. Palgrave, a distinguished traveller. He 
was permitted to present his letter from Her Majesty, 
which, however, was not respectful enough to please the 
emperor, who, though he allowed the chief envoy to leave 
his country, added his subordinates to the number of his 
prisoners. 



THE WAR IN ABYSSINIA, 237 

Meantime the chiefs and sub-chiefs in Theodore's various 
provinces became more and more rebelHous, and his cruel 
punishments drove his soldiers by hundreds away from him. 

It became evident to the English government, in 1866, 
that something more must be done, and it was resolved to 
send an army to Abyssinia, to storm Theodore's stronghold, 
the citadel of Magdala, release the captives, and depose 
the emperor. . 

On January 7, 1868, a British army of 12,000 men, drawn 
from the Bombay presidency, was landed at Zoulla, on 
Annesley Bay, under the command of General Sir Robert 
Napier, already distinguished in the Indian Mutiny. Zoulla 
was in the province of Tigre, then in rebellion against Theo- 
dore. Interpreters were scarce, and Captain Speedy was 
recalled from New Zealand to serve the commander in 
chief in that capacity. An advance party had been sent 
forward to gain information as to roads, supplies, and the 
dangers of the enterprise. 

It was found necessary to make the road, four hundred 
miles long, across valleys and over mountains, where there 
were only bridle paths which the sure-footed active little 
Abyssinian horses were alone able to travel. The days 
were hot, the nights extremely cold. Horses and mules 
died by hundreds from fatigue or want of water. Had the 
country through which they passed been well affected to 
Theodore, a mere handt'i-il of men stationed on many a 
rocky cliff looking down on many a difficult mountain pass, 
might have obstructed the whole army. But Kassa, the 
Prince of Tigre, was the enemy of Theodore. The British 
army paid for all supplies, and was generally welcomed all 
along its route. 

Here are a few words from the pen of an eye-witness 
descriptive of the march : — 

"Imagine three regiments, two white, one dusky, with miles of 
artillery baggage wagons, mules, and followers crawling after 
them, passing over mountains high as Mont Cenis, to halt at a 
point seven thousand five hundred feet above the sea; moun- 



238 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

tains behind, beforCj and around ; mountains all conical, looking 
as if they belonged to another world. And at the halt only one 
wretched spring to be found, its water loaded, as such water 
always is, with the seeds of dysentery. It is hard to paint the 
frantic scene ; the rush to the spring, the confusion that followed, 
the trampling through the water, the angry craving of parched 
soldiers and followers, and worn-out beasts! In the midst of it 
all, half a dozen mules are driven up loaded with their steel 
tubes. These are the appliances for a driven well. Tap, 
tap, tap, goes a hammer, all is rigged up in five minutes, and in 
ten pure water for the army is spouting among the stones." 

On Good Friday of the year 1868 the British army 
reached the plateau of Affeejo. It was now in hostile terri- 
tory, and confronted by the two outposts of Magdala, — Fahla 
and Selasse. When a round shot from the brow of the 
former hill struck the ground not far from his Excellency 
the commander in chief, it was hailed with a cheer for 
Theodore from the soldiery, who had begun to fear that 
the expedition might end in a walk-over. This was not to 
be, however. The next day was fought a bloody battle, 
called the battle of Arogeh, and Theodore's power received 
a fatal shock. Hitherto, whenever he fought he had con- 
quered. Theodore's exasperation at the loss of this battle 
was terrible, and he took vengeance on all of his own 
soldiers who fell wounded into his hands. 

"Have you seen Theodore's last handiwork?" said a 
newspaper reporter to Mr. Stanley after the troops had 
entered Magdala. Being answered in the negative he led 
him to a precipice, and pointed downward. There lay 
three hundred and eight dead people, most of them these 
unfortunate defeated, wounded soldiers, piled one upon 
another, stripped naked, with fetters round their limbs. 
They had been manacled and fettered hand and foot, and 
sabred by Theodore and his men as they lay helpless upon 
the ground. 

It would be impossible to describe in detail the diffi- 
culties of the wondrous march to Magdala. I will give only 
one extract from Stanley's narrative : — 



THE WAR IN ABYSSINIA. 239 

"On arriving at the river Takasse we thought we were hemmed 
in, and paused in bewilderment. ' No ! we will neither go back 
nor follow the Takasse to the Blue Nile,' said Captain Speedy, 
to his wondering comrades ; ' we intend to scale that apparently- 
interminable wall you see before you.' 'Great Caesar!' In 
very truth most men would have uttered this exclamation upon 
seeing the lengthy sky-wrapt walls of granite before them. 
But what had been done could be done by Napier and his men. 
Already the Fourth Foot was half-way up the perpendicular wall 
serpentining at right and acute angles with each other, and 
round and round like the windings to the summit of a cathedral 
spire. The higher we ascend the grander the scene becomes. 
Under gorgeous sunshine, and a sky as blue as any vaunted 
by Italy, spreads the wildest land, growing each step wilder 
as we approach Magdala. Upward unceasingly we toil, but 
often pause to rest. The fleetest and hardiest of our Arab 
horses become blown ; the hardiest of iron frames relax the firm 
tension of their nerves. Each highest angle or curve in the 
road formed a perfect fortress. The slightest effort would over- 
turn a ton weight of rock. Ten stout-hearted men could have 
defied a thousand! The Fourth Foot having, like heroic souls, 
mounted to the plateau ten thousand feet above the level of 
the sea, their colonel requested his men to give three cheers ; 
but they were too tired to give more than a feeble response ; 
and from the state of their feet it was cruel to prevent their 
lying down the moment they had reached the green sward of 
the plateau, which was soon covered with the forms of weary 
men." 

All that toil and suffering for want of a letter ! Queer 
are the ways of diplomacy. 

On the evening of April 7th, after the campaign had 
lasted three months, the army was in sight of Magdala. 

" Magdala," says Mr. Stanley in his preface, " was a town 
planted on the top of a mountain about ten thousand feet 
above sea level, amid gigantic mountains piled one upon 
another, grouped together in immense gatherings — profound 
abysses, two thousand, three thousand, and even four thou- 
sand feet deep ; a region of almost indescribable wildness 
and grandeur. It was an almost impregnable stronghold, 
situated four hundred miles from the point of disembarka- 
tion ; a strange weird country, full of peaks and mountains 



240 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

and niggedness, lay between it and the sea. A battle was 
fought, Magdala was taken by assault, then set on fire, and 
utterly destroyed. The emperor committed suicide; the 
captives were released, and the conquerors returned to 
the sea, flushed with success, having suffered the smallest 
loss that could possibly follow an invasion of a hostile 
country." 

The outposts Fuhla and Selasse fell into the hands of 
the British, after some sharp fighting. The army had been 
all brought from the Bombay presidency. There were Sikhs 
and Punjaubees and Sepoys there, who all fought admirably, 
the Thirty-third was an Irish regiment, and the Fourth Foot 
has been already mentioned. 

After the battle of Arogeh Lieutenant Prideaux and Mr. 
Flad were sent by Theodore on a mission to the English 
general. Lieutenant Prideaux created some amusement 
among the worn and weary men who had come to rescue 
him and his fellow prisoners from " a horrible captivity," 
by appearing spick and span in a glittering, well-brushed 
uniform, with his face well shaved, his boots well blacked, 
and his spurs well pohshed. One of the first questions 
asked him was what had been the effect on Theodore of 
the late battle? 

Then he told them how, when Theodore had seen the 
gigantic elephants, which, with their ponderous loads, had 
ascended the precipices that have just been described, 
coming down from the plateau, and the long line of men in 
red, men in white, men in all colors, that accompanied 
them, an exclamation of admiration burst from him, and 
he cried that the great wish of his lifetime was about to be 
granted; he should see how soldiers, real soldiers, would 
conduct themselves in battle. When he found that the 
English soldiers advanced upward steadily towards Mag- 
dala, disregarding his chain-shot and 200-pound balls, he 
fell to weeping violently, gnashing his teeth, and stamping 
on the ground. His rage was increased when he saw his 
best army melting away before the steady fire of the 



THE WAR IN ABYSSINIA. 24 1 

English. Then he threatened that the lives of the captives 
should pay for his defeat, and when night came, and the 
battle had ended, he took to drinking arrack to drown 
his agony of despair. 

He decided towards morning to send Prideaux and Flad 
to the English general. But the result was not what he had 
hoped. To have come so far, and spent so much money, 
merely to set the captives free, was no longer enough. More 
was demanded; the surrender and dethronement of Theo- 
dore. 

Sir Robert replied: "Your Majesty, after having fought 
like a brave man, has been defeated by the superior might 
of England. It is not our wish that more blood should be 
shed. If, therefore, your Majesty will bring with you, into 
our camp, all the Europeans in your hands, and deliver 
them in safety to us, and submit yourself to her Majesty, 
the Queen of England, honorable treatment for yourself 
and all your family will be guaranteed. Signed R. Nap- 
ier, Lieutenant-general, Commander in chief." 

"Honorable treatment!" cried Theodore, when he re- 
ceived this letter. "What is meant by honorable treatment? 
Will they carry me away to England? or will they help me 
to punish my rebellious subjects? " 

He then dictated an answer to the general's letter, and 
sent back the two envoys with it to the English general. 
When they had left him he lay down, and covering himself 
completely with a cotton sheet, lay motionless for upwards 
of an hour. At last he rose from the ground, and drawing 
a pistol from his girdle, placed the muzzle of it between 
his teeth. For some reason the trigger did not at once 
answer to his touch, and there was time for his attendants 
to throw themselves upon him and take the pistol away. 
The failure of this attempt at self-destruction changed the 
current of his thoughts; and he began to believe it was the 
will of God that he should live and conquer. 

The document he had sent to Sir Robert Napier was 
incomprehensible to that general and his staff; they did not 



242 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

then know that when Theodore dictated it he believed that 
he was uttering his dying words. 

Sir Robert's previous letter, already quoted, which had 
been sent back by the envoys, was returned to them to be 
given again to the emperor, with only an oral message. 
"If that paper had proved the death-warrant of all the 
captives," writes one of Sir Robert's staff- officers, "still 
it was the only thing to do; they would but have sacri- 
ficed their lives for their country's honor — a cause for 
which thousands of brave men had joyfully given their 
blood before them." Nevertheless, "the whole Eng- 
ish army," says Stanley, "looked anxiously on Prideaux 
and his companion with compassionate tenderness, an- 
ticipating for them the very worst of calamities that 
Theodore, in revengeful rage, might pour upon their 
heads." 

But what was the joy of Prideaux and Flad, to say 
nothing of their surprise, when, shortly after dark, as they 
were ascending the mountains, they met Mr. Rassam and 
the rest of their fellow-captives coming down under the 
guidance of one of the emperor's artisans, who had been 
ordered to see them in safety to the tent of the British 
commander. 

A sudden impulse had induced Theodore to order that 
the captives should all assemble at one of the gates of the 
citadel in half an hour. 

"'They had not long to wait. Theodore arrived at the 
gate, clad in his proudest robes, surrounded by his princi- 
pal men. All the captives salaamed to him, except one. 
His Majesty then gave orders to open the gate, and the 
prisoners defiled before him, bowing low as they passed 
him. "Farewell, Cameron," Theodore said, "we part 
friends, I hope? " The consul, with his heart full of bitter 
memories, could only answer: "Adieu, your Majesty," and 
once more bowing low, passed on. "Farewell, Mr. Stern," 
said the king, "forgive me for what I did by you." Stern 
answered like Cameron, but young Kerens, with his fresh, 



THE WAR m ABYSSINIA. 243 

youthful impulses, while yet with all his sufferings strong 
in his mind, went up to Theodore and, clasping his hand, 
said, with a lowly obeisance: "Good-bye, your Majesty; 
I wish you well." 

The captives looked a great deal better than their deliv- 
erers could have expected. But, strange to say, they were 
received in the English camp with curiosity but no enthu- 
siasm. Only three seemed broken down by their captivity. 
One of these was Kerens. Mrs. Flad, and a Frenchman, 
both sick, were left behind, but Mrs, Flad was brought 
down by her husband in the morning. 

The next day was Easter Sunday. Theodore sent a drove 
of bullocks and a flock of sheep to the camp, saying that 
the English soldiers ought to feast upon that day. But the 
general refused to receive any presents until after Theo- 
dore's personal submission. 

Then came the assault of Magdala. Theodore now hope- 
less, knowing that all v/as lost, attempted to escape, but 
the soldiers of his escort, attacked by a Mohammedan tribe 
the Wallo Gallas, deserted him. Then Theodore returned 
to Magdala, put ragged raiment over his outer clothing, 
and, returning to his citadel, animated his soldiers to fire 
through the stockade at all who approached it. A few of 
the attacking party were thus wounded, but the capture of 
the fortress was almost bloodless. 

Two Irish privates were advancing a few paces from each 
other to the upper revetment, when they saw about a dozen 
fellows aiming at them. They instantly opened fire ; and so 
quick and so well delivered was it, that but few of their assailants 
escaped. Then over the upper revetment the two men made 
their way, and at the same time they saw a man standing near a 
haystack with a revolver in his hand. When he saw them pre- 
pare to fire he ran back, and both men heard a shot fired. They 
found the man lying prostrate, dying, with the revolver still con- 
vulsively clenched in his hand. The revolver fhey considered 
their proper loot, and took it from him, but on possessing them- 
selves of it what was their surprise to see engraved upon a silver 
plate, — 



244 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY, 

PRESENTED 
BY 

VICTORIA, 

Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, 

TO 

THEODORUS, 

Emperor of Abyssinia, 

As a slight token of her gratitude for his kindness 
to her servant Flow den. 

1861. 

At about the same moment the gate was forced, and 
Magdala was won. Theodore's palace at Magdala was a 
rude hut. "A private soldier entering it found the queen, 
a fair complexioned woman, crouching in a corner with 
her son. He felt pity for her forlorn state, but could only 
express his compassion by pats upon her shoulder." The 
widowed empress was the Princess Ettige, a lady about six 
and twenty, already suffering from consumption. She was 
the daughter of one of her husband's rebellious chiefs. Her 
nearest relatives were still captives in his prisons. She had 
married Theodore against her will, but having become his 
wife, she was said, by report in Magdala, to have been his 
guardian angel. Theodore left one son by this lady, a 
bright little boy eight years old, named Alamaio. Mother 
and child, with all their household, were placed at once under 
Captain Speedy' s protection. The poor lady, however, 
died on her way to the coast; and her little son was taken 
to Bombay, to be carefully educated, but he had inherited 
his mother's malady, and died before he reached manhood. 

The empress was consulted as to her husband's funeral. 
She only expressed a wish that the prayers of his own 
church might be read over him by his own chaplain. The 
funeral was a very simple one. The body, which had been 
stripped and exposed to the gaze and the jeers of the soldiers 
for some hours, was decently swathed in silken robes, pre- 
paratory to burial. A photograph was taken of the dead 




GENERAL SIR ROBERT NAPIER. 



THE WAR IN AB YSSINIA. ''^ 245 

emperor, and a post-mortem examination was held, by 
which it was ascertained that Theodore had received no 
wound from any English rifle but a slight scratch on the leg. 

The next question to be determined was, what should be 
done with Magdala and its two outpost stations, Fuhla and 
Selasse. They were offered to a chief who had rendered 
considerable assistance to the English, but he declined 
them. It was then that two rival Mohammedan queens, 
the heads of Gallo tribes, Mastervit and Walkeit, came to 
Sir Robert to press on him their claims to Magdala. It 
was decided in the end to burn and destroy all buildings on 
the mountain heights, and leave them bare, to be occupied 
by whosoever chose to take possession of them. 

On the march of the army back to the coast, as it passed 
through Tigr^, the soldiers were received by people who 
came out to meet them, dancing and singing the Psalms 
of David. A knowledge of the Scriptures is universal 
among the Abyssinians, "and probably," says the officer 
on Sir Robert Napier's staff whose words I have several 
times quoted, "a careful examination of the religion of 
modern Abyssinia would show that it is less corrupt than is 
often stated. Indeed, it is probable that much of what is 
good in the character of the people, is due to the influence 
exerted upon them by their Christian faith. In the midst 
of sad ignorance, and considerable depravity, there is evi- 
dence on every side that the lamp of truth has been burn- 
ing through all these ages in the country." 

Kassa, Prince of Tigr^, had been of invaluable assistance 
to the English. Without his alliance they could hardly 
have accomplished their almost superhuman march to 
Magdala. Many of the nobility of his province, who had 
been held in captivity at Magdala, were among the one 
hundred native prisoners liberated by the English when 
they stormed the citadel; in return for Kassa' s services a 
small battery of cannon was presented to him, together with 
sufficient muskets to arm a regiment, and a large quantity 
of ammunition. 



246 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

When the English had departed, Kassa set himself to 
recover the lost throne of Theodore, being himself a de- 
scendant, as he claimed, of the royal house of Solomon 
and the Queen of Sheba. Two feelings influenced his for- 
eign policy, — hatred to the Turks {i.e. the Egyptians), and 
gratitude to England. He was a man of ability far above 
the common order, of great martial skill and personal 
strength. At the time of the English campaign he was 
twenty-eight. His abilities had apparently lain latent, but 
he resolutely applied himself to the task of bringing under 
his control the great kingdom, which, under the sway of 
Theodore, had been consolidated and then broken again to 
pieces. In 1873 he was able to place the triple crown upon 
his head, and to call himself King Johannes, or John, King 
of Kings of Ethiopia. 

In 1876 war broke out between Abyssinia and Egypt; it 
may be said that there had never been actual peace between 
them. Each claimed the strip of country of which Masso- 
wah is the port, bounded on the west by Nubia and washed 
on the east by the Red Sea. In this campaign of 1876 all 
the advantage lay with the Abyssinians. The Egyptian 
commander in chief was captured, as well as a large part of 
his army, notwithstanding the superior equipment of the 
soldiers. Some prisoners were massacred in the first heat 
of victory by the Abyssinians, but the greater part were 
cruelly mutilated, sent down to Massowah, and thence home. 

It is very curious to read the divergent accounts of Amer- 
ican officers in the Egyptian army, who represent King 
John as no better than a barbarian, and the opinions of him, 
given us by English travellers, especially by Mr. De Cosson, 
to whom he showed "distinguished consideration." This 
gentleman speaks of him as "a great soldier, a just judge, 
and a powerful ruler; of distinguished and refined appear- 
ance, a fine horseman, master of athletic exercises, alike 
learned and practical, faithful to his religion, interested in 
other countries, and unquestionably the ablest prince who 
has been allotted to his own." 



THE WAR IN ABYSSINIA. 247 

These are virtues enough to adorn a tombstone ; and we 
have no means of adjusting our opinion of King John to a 
juste milieu. He undoubtedly bulhed Gordon in 1879, 
when he visited Abyssinia on his way to his government at 
Khartoum. But then Gordon was an Egyptian officer and 
obnoxious accordingly. Gordon's impression of the poten- 
tate may, however, be set against that formed in the same 
year by Mr. De. Cosson. 

^' I write in haste, but I will sum up my impression of 
Abyssinia. The king is rapidly growing mad. He cuts 
off the noses of those who take snuff, and the hps of those 
who smoke. The king is hated more than Theodore was. 
Cruel to a degree, he does not, however, take life. He muti- 
lates his victims." 

The last page of King John's history we must take from 
Father Ohrwalder. A man calling himself the son of King 
Theodore, though not by the Princess Ettig6 his wife, 
entered the camp of the dervishes, the Khalifa Abdullah 
being then at war with Abyssinia, and offered to fight 
against his own countrymen. He said his name was Todros 
(Theodore) hke his father's, that when the Enghsh stormed 
Magdala he was two years old, but had been long hidden 
by his friends, that King John might not discover him. 
The Mahdist general was then at Galabat, an important 
town on the Abyssinian frontier, which had for years been 
claimed by both Egyptians and Abyssinians. He sent 
Todros and two sons that he had brought with him, to 
his master the khalifa at Omdurman. The khahfa re- 
ceived Todros very cordially, and engaged to reinstate him 
on his father's throne, provided he would promise that all 
Abyssinians should become Mohammedans, and that tribute 
should be paid to him as a sign of subjection. 

Shortly after a more formidable army of dervishes was de- 
spatched to subdue Abyssinia, and soon after their departure 
the khalifa received secretly a note from King John, offering 
to make a friendly treaty with him, on the ground that together 
they might make war on the Europeans, their common 



248 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

enemy, instead of turning their arms against each other. 
To which the khalifa replied that he could not but regard 
the king as an enemy to God and His prophet, and that he 
had no choice left but to exterminate him. This roused 
King John, he determined to retake Galabat, to advance 
on Omdurman, and destroy Mahdism. 

There was a prophecy among the Arabs that a king of 
Abyssinia should advance on Khartoum, his horsemen wad- 
ing in blood, and that he should tie his horse to a lone 
tree standing on a certain hill near the city. When the war 
broke out belief in this prophecy caused almost a panic in 
Omdurman. 

A hard fight was fought near Galabat in February, 1890. 
The dervishes were getting the worst of it, their ammunition 
was almost spent, when a bullet struck King John. His army 
at once fled, and their camp fell into the hands of their 
enemies. The dead body of King John was taken, when, 
two weeks later, a large force of dervishes came up with the 
remains of the retreating army. The body had been packed 
in a long box, which was then sealed with wax. At first the 
box was supposed to contain treasure. The king's head was 
cut off and sent to the khalifa. The khalifa's joy knew 
no bounds : the head was placed upon a camel's back and 
paraded through the streets of Omdurman with shouts of 
rejoicing. 

Among the precious objects captured with it was a 
superb New Testament written on parchment in the Amharic 
language, profusely illustrated and illuminated, also a friendly 
letter from Queen Victoria to King John, dated November, 
1887. 

The present history of Abyssinia relates to its struggle 
with the Italians. In the general division among European 
powers of "spheres of influence" in Africa, protectorates, 
and ports of entry, Italy seems to have been left out till the 
year 1884. Her position reminds me of a story told of a 
small child, who cried compassionately when looking with 
his mother over pictures in a family Bible, one of which 



THE WAR IN ABYSSINIA. 249 

represented the traducers of Daniel with their wives and 
families being cast into the den of lions : " Oh ! mamma, 
there is one poor little lion hasn't got a bit! " The same 
spirit seems to have animated the parliament of the Euro- 
pean powers, and the strip of seacoast, now called Eritrea, 
so long in dispute between Egypt and Abyssinia, was as- 
signed to Italy. Ever since the Crimean War, when it was 
the policy of Sardinia to take a position among the great 
powers, and so pave the way for her sovereign's future rec- 
ognition as King of Italy, that country has strained every 
nerve, and exhausted her resources, in an effort to keep 
abreast of the Great Powers. Possessing Massowah, which, 
built on a coral island, is an important port on the Red Sea, 
and having Abyssinia for her "sphere of influence," Italy 
has been engaged in perpetual and apparently unprofitable 
warfare. We read telegrams concerning her successes and 
defeats, which we understand little about. Recently, how- 
ever, we have learned that she has effected the re-conquest 
of Kassala from the followers of the Mahdi. 

Abyssinia would appear to be an unconquerable country. 
It rises out of the desert as some mountains rise out of the 
sea. It is divided into three principal provinces, Tigre, 
Amkara, and Shoa; these again are inhabited by various 
clans, each with its Ras, who is its chief or headman. 
These provinces united, or any two of them united, could 
resist an invader, or, even if he penetrated into the country, 
could prevent his ever holding it. Abyssinia is the Switzer- 
land of Africa, and it is probable that the utmost the Italians 
will be able to do will be to hold as their own the strip of 
territory along the shore of the Red Sea. A strip which is, 
however, of immense value to the Abyssinians, as, with the 
exception of Zoulla, which is little more than a beach on 
Annesley Bay, Massowah is the only port through which 
Abyssinia can hold communication with the civilized world. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ZANZIBAR. 

I THINK my readers by this time understand that I do 
not claim to be writing a sketch of the history of " Europe 
in Africa" in proper historical perspective. I allow myself 
to place in the foreground any figures that have interested 
myself and seem likely to interest my readers; and as Zan- 
zibar has, for the last twenty years, played a prominent part 
in the history of East Africa, I offer but a slight apology 
for giving a little sketch of Mohammedan life in its pal- 
aces : — the life of the sons and daughters of Seyyid Said, 
first Sultan of Zanzibar and of Muscat, father of Sultan 
Seyyid Medjid and of Sultan Seyyid Burghash, the latter 
of whom is well known to us in connection with Living- 
stone, Stanley, and Emin Pasha. 

The Sultan Imam of Oman died at Muscat in the latter 
part of the eighteenth century, leaving three children. The 
eldest boy, Seyyid Said, was only nine years of age, and the 
restless Arab tribes in the interior of Arabia, and the Per- 
sians on the east of his dominions, flattered themselves that 
they could, without difficulty, throw off their allegiance to 
Oman, and made light of the boy-Sultan's authority. But 
to the amazement of the viziers, who had expected to gov- 
ern during a long minority, the reins of government were 
picked up, before they could be grasped by any of the min- 
isters, by the late Sultan's sister, and they had nothing to 
do but to submit. She was, as Froissart says of a certain 
brave lady in his day, "as good as a man." She defended 
her nephew's capital with her sword as well as by her 
wisdom, and was able to transfer to him, when he came of 

250 



ZANZIBAR. 251 

age, an empire so unimpaired as to place him in a position 
to extend his dominions by the conquest of Zanzibar. 

Sultan Seyyid Said is spoken of by contemporary English 
and German writers as distinguished by energy and intel- 
ligence; and as affording, by his justice, protection to the 
property of every one in his dominions. He was an Arab, 
and was proud of it, for an Arab, however high he rises in 
the world, never renounces his connection with his tribe. 
He ruled over Oman, and laid claim to all the qoast of 
Southern Arabia from Aden to Cape Ras el Had, and 
thence along the west side of the Persian Gulf to Bassorah; 
besides this he conquered the Isle of Zanzibar, and with it 
a long coast-line of East Africa, from Cape Dongola to Cape 
Guardafui. 

Muscat, the capital city of Oman, is a fortified town on 
the eastern coast of Arabia, and carries on considerable 
commerce with the interior, besides being the emporium 
for trade with the Persian Gulf. 

It is not often that we have a chance of obtaining a 
glimpse into the private life of a Mohammedan house- 
hold, especially from a female standpoint; and I have 
been surprised that more notice has not been taken of a 
little book published some years since in Germany, "The 
Memoirs of an Arabian Princess, by Sal' me, daughter of the 
Sultan of Zanzibar." It was extensively reviewed in France, 
and the genuineness of its authorship has never been dis- 
puted. 

As the Princess gives us not a single date in the whole 
course of her narrative, it is a little hard to supply her with 
chronology. 

She seems to have been born near the close of the first 
quarter of the present century. Her mother was the 
daughter of a Circassian farmer, torn away from her home 
by marauding Turkish soldiers when she was in early child- 
hood. The family took shelter in a cellar, but were sur- 
prised in their place of refuge. The parents were shot, and 
the children were carried off by three mounted Arnauts. 



252 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

One of these, with the elder boy, soon disappeared; the 
little girls (one only three years old, who was crying bit- 
terly for her mother) were kept together until evening, 
when they, too, were parted, and the mother of Princess 
Sal' me heard no more of her lost ones as long as she lived. 
She came into possession of the Sultan of Zanzibar, and 
was brought up with his own children. 

"She could scarcely be called pretty," says her daughter, 
"but she was tall and shapely; had black eyes, and hair 
down to her knees; of a very gentle disposition, her pleasure 
consisted in assisting other people, in looking after and 
nursing any sick person in the household. She could read, 
and I well remember her going about, with her books, from 
one patient to another, and reading prayers to them. She 
was as kind and pious as she was modest, and in all her 
dealings she was frank and open. She was always a tender 
and loving mother to me, but this did not hinder her from 
punishing me severely when she deemed it necessary." 

The Sultan had a princess of Oman for his legal wife, who 
reigned absolute mistress of his household, treating all the 
other wives and their children in a very haughty and impe- 
rious manner. "Happily for us," says Sal'me, "she had 
no children of her own." 

The old Sultan when he died left thirty-six children, 
eighteen sons and eighteen daughters; but they were all 
by his sarari, so that there was no difference of rank among 
them; though Circassian women refused to eat with Abys- 
sinians, and the children of Abyssinian and Circassian 
mothers looked down on those whose mothers were negro 
women. 

"It is generally believed by Europeans," says Princess 
Sal'me, "that with us the sons are greatly preferred to the 
daughters, but such was not the case in our family. I know 
not a single instance in which the son was more liked by 
his father and mother merely because he was a son." 

The most delightful spot in Zanzibar was an enclosed 
gallery — a loggia of great length — belonging to a round 



ZANZIBAR. 253 

tower at the Bet il Mtoni, the great palace and harem. It 
was open to all breezes from the sea, and there the old 
Sultan would walk for hours. There, too, his wife and 
grown-up children would take coffee with him in the day- 
time, and often in the evenings the whole household, young 
and old, would assemble to hear musicians, or see conjurors 
or dancing girls perform before their master. 

The mother of Sal' me had a strong friendship for Sara 
and Medine, two Circassian sarari who came from the same 
part of the country as herself. Sara had two children, Med j id 
and Chadudj ; and when she died, Sal' me 's mother, accord- 
ing to promise, gave them a mother's care, for which they 
were not ungrateful. Med j id became Sultan after his 
father's death. When he came of age, and had his own 
establishment, he entreated his adopted mother to take the 
head of his household, and she did so, though to leave the 
lively, populous Bet il Mtoni (a household consisting of a 
thousand persons) was not altogether to her taste. When 
reproached by her friends at Bet il MttDni for leaving them, 
she answered : " Oh ! my friends, I do not leave you with 
my own free-will; but it is my fate to part from you!" 
Her daughter, commenting on this, says : — 

"She used the word 'fate '; many persons would lay the 
stress on what they call chance. It should be borne in mind 
that I once was a Mohammedan, and grew up as one. I am, 
moreover, speaking of Arab life, of an Arab home, and there 
are two things above all quite unknown in a real Arab house, 
the word 'chance ' and materialism. The Mohammedan 
not only believes in God as his Creator and Preserver, but 
he is convinced at all times of His presence, and he feels 
likewise sure that not his own will, but the will of the Lord, 
is done in little things as well as great." 

Poor Princess Sal'me, from her new life as a German haus 
frau, looked back on her more animated existence in the 
great household in her father's harem at Bet il Mtoni, with 
regretful sadness ; and, though she had embraced Chris- 
tianity, could never forget she had been a daughter of Islam. 



254 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

I have long cherished the idea, and I think travellers in 
Africa appear to entertain it too, although it seldom finds 
expression, that were it not for the connection of Arabs 
with slave-catching and slave-dealing, which makes them 
the enemies of all Christian powers who are pledged to put 
down such traffic, we should consider them a race believing, 
like ourselves, in one God and in the efficacy of prayer, 
holding many of our rules of conduct, indeed, recognizing 
all but one of our Ten Commandments, i.e. that which has 
reference to continence and marriage. It seems to me, in 
other words, that, after Christian peoples, the Arabs are the 
finest race on earth, and that their civilization, where they 
spread it in Africa, is a great advance on the fetish worship 
and heathen abominations of the negroes. But so long as 
the Arabs are man-stealers and man-sellers, their hands must 
be against the Christian nations endeavoring to suppress 
slave-dealing, and ours against them. 

Sal'me and her mother left the great harem establishment 
at Bet il Mtoni to live with Medjid, in a smaller palace, 
where his adopted mother superintended his household. 
Prince Medjid was fond of his little sister Sal'me, who was 
a great deal of a tomboy. He taught her fencing, and took 
care, she should have good instruction in reading and the 
Koran; writing she insisted upon learning, and did so in 
secret when her request for an instructor was refused. 

The Sultan had two domestic establishments, the great 
one at Bet il Mtoni, presided over by Azze, his lawful 
wife, the other at Bet il Sahil, which was more under his 
own eye. Of the household at Bet il Sahil the Princess 
thus speaks : — 

" A painter would have found many models for a picture 
in our gallery, for a more variegated company could not 
easily be met with. The faces of the people showed eight 
to ten different complexions at least; and it would indeed 
have puzzled a clever artist to make out the many-tinted 
garments worn. The noise was truly appalling, — quarrel- 
ling or romping children were in every corner, loud voices 



ZANZIBAR. 



255 



and clapping of hands, the eastern equivalent for ringing a 
bell, the rattle and clatter of the women's wooden sandals, 
— all combined in producing a distracting din. . . . 
Arabic was the only language sanctioned in my father's 
presence, but as soon as he turned his back a confusion of 
tongues commenced, and Arabian, Persian, Turkish, Cir- 
cassian, Swhalli, Nubian, and Abyssinian were spoken and 
mixed up together." 

It was to this establishment that Sal' me and her mother 
removed after the peace of Med j id's household was broken 
up by the jealousy of his sister, Chadudj, when he brought 
home a wife, Asche, a distant relative from Oman, who had 
recently arrived at Zanzibar. Asche was pretty, gentle, and 
charming. She was mistress of the house, by right of mar- 
riage, but Chadudj, disregarding this, ruled over her so 
tyrannically "that," says Sal'me, "poor, gentle Asche fre- 
quently came to my mother in tears, complaining of her 
troubles." At last she applied for a divorce, and returned 
to an old aunt she had in Oman. Sal'me and her mother 
then removed to Bet il Sahil, but Medjid came often to see 
them, "and remained," says his sister, "the dear and true 
friend he had always been." 

She tells a pretty anecdote of the old Sultan's fatherly 
affection. Medjid was taken very ill one day at his palace 
at Watoro, and a messenger on horseback was at once de- 
spatched to Bet il Mtoni to inform his father. To the sur- 
prise of everybody the old man arrived alone, an hour 
afterwards, ro'v^ing himself in a tiny fishing boat, and hur- 
ried into the house. Tears ran down his beard as he stood 
at his son's sick bed. "O Lord! " he prayed, in anguish, 
"spare the life of my son.'^ Being asked, after Medjid 
recovered, why he had come alone in so unwonted a manner, 
he answered : "When the messenger brought the news, there 
was not a single boat on shore; one would have had to be 
signalled for, and I had no time to wait. It would also 
have taken too long to have a horse saddled. I saw a fish- 
erman passing near in his boat, so I seized my weapons, 



256 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

calling to him to stop and give me his boat; I jumped in 
and rowed here by myself." 

Princess Sal' me maintains that it is a great mistake to 
suppose that ladies, especially in so populous a harem, have 
nothing to do. At night they go to bed fully dressed and 
with all their jewels on. Meals were taken in silence; and 
although the master of the house was present, no woman 
ate at the same table with him but his wife. On sitting 
down to meals, each person said in an undertone : " In the 
name of the Merciful Lord"; and on rising, "Thanked be 
the Lord of the Universe." 

Sal' me gives a lively account of the great event of the 
year, the arrival of a little fleet of vessels at the island, con- 
taining the goods ordered for the yearly outfit of all persons, 
great and small, in the Sultan's households. Each lady had 
previously sent in a list of what she asked for. The fleet 
had been sent forth laden with produce, principally cloves, 
the proceeds of which were to be reinvested in foreign 
articles of dress and luxury. The slaves did the unpacking 
in the Sultan's treasure chamber, the elder princes and 
princesses were entrusted with the general distribution. 
Naturally it gave occasion to much heart-burning, and to 
many grievances, imaginary or real. The amount of per- 
fumes demanded by the ladies in an Eastern household was 
something extraordinary. 

When Sal' me was about nine years old her father made 
his last voyage to Oman, whither he went every three or 
four years. Oman was governed by his eldest son, Tueni 
(or Sueni); and on this occasion there were some disturb- 
ances on the Persian frontier. The Persians had never 
become reconciled to the Arabians since the incursion of 
the Wahabees early in the century. 

The Arab aristocracy in Oman, poor and proud, greatly 
despised the mixed multitude who resided in Zanzibar. In 
their opinion their relatives in Zanzibar were not much 
better than the negroes they had been brought up among, 
and their speaking any language but Arabic was a sure indi- 



ZANZIBAR. 257 

cation of barbarism in Arab eyes. The Sultan set sail in 
the ship Kitorie^ which is Arabic for Victoria, the vessel 
being named in honor of the Queen. The government of 
Zanzibar was entrusted, for the principal part of the time he 
was away, to Prince Medjid, and his son Seyyid Burghash 
accompanied him. 

Time passed, and the old man did not return. At last 
the fleet was sighted, and all the women and slaves in his 
great households arrayed themselves in their best finery to 
receive him. Alas ! he had died upon the voyage. His 
son Burghash had insisted that his body should not be buried 
at sea, but, contrary to Mohammedan custom, it should be 
kept unburied till the ship reached land. At his earnest 
request the remains were placed in a coffin, which, when the 
vessel came in sight of land, Burghash placed in a small 
boat, and, silently and secretly, it was interred in the usual 
burying place. 

Then came of course disputes as to the succession. Bur- 
ghash wished to succeed his father, but Medjid had already 
all power in Zanzibar in his own hands. He retained it till 
his death in 1870, and Tueni was left in undisputed posses- 
sion of Oman ; thus dividing the empire acquired by Sultan 
Seyyid Said. Tueni was an accompHshed soldier and very 
popular among his people, but the necessity he was under 
of making constant war against wild tribes from the desert 
so impoverished him that he was at last obliged to impose 
light taxes. The Arabs of Muscat had never before been 
taxed. Salum, Tueni's eldest son, took advantage of their 
discontent to rebel against his father, and shot him dead 
with a revolver as he lay taking his usual rest at midday. 
Aden was lost to Oman in January, 1839, when it was be- 
sieged by the English, in consequence of a dispute with the 
Sultan about indemnity for the maltreatment of a shipwrecked 
British crew by the Arabs. It has ever since remained 
in the possession of the English, a rent of 8500 Ger- 
man thalers being paid for it to the Sultan of Oman. It 
is now a place of considerable importance, being one of 



258 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

the coaling stations of the P. & O. steamers, on their way 
to India. 

Princess Sal'me was mixed up, after her mother's death, in 
a conspiracy to overthrow her favorite brother Medjid, and 
place Burghash in his stead upon the throne. Burghash 
was entirely discomfited ; and by the help of the English, 
whose assistance was implored by Medjid, was transported 
to Bombay. No vengeance was taken by Medjid on his 
rebeUious sisters, who had been most active in the plot to 
dethrone him, in which case his life would doubtless have 
been in peril. After a year or two even Burghash was 
allowed to return to Zanzibar, and dwelt there in peace, 
until he quietly succeeded his brother Medjid in 1870. 

Meantime Princess Sal'me, who, by Mohammedan law, 
was not allowed to speak to any free man, unless a relative, 
had managed to make acquaintance, on her housetop, with 
a young German, the representative of a Hamburg com- 
mercial firm. 

On board an English man-of-war she made her escape to 
Aden, where she was baptized into the Christian faith, and 
was soon afterwards joined by her lover, who had suffered 
no persecution from her forgiving brother, Medjid. They 
were married and went to Hamburg, where the husband was 
run over by a railroad train three years after, leaving her 
a widow with young children to be provided for by herself. 

When Sultan Seyyid Burghash visited England, she en- 
deavored to see him, but Sir Bartle Frere, then in London, 
and all-influential in matters concerning East Africa, 
refused to obtain for her permission to do so. In 1885, 
however, she paid a visit to Zanzibar, under the protection 
of the German government, and in a German war vessel. 
The visit was partly pain and partly pleasure. She had left 
her own country in 1866; she returned after nineteen years 
of absence. "I had left my country," she says, "an Arab 
and a true Mohammedan; I returned to it no longer a 
princess, an indifferent Christian, and half a German." 

The Sultan not only refused to see her, but wholly dis- 



ZANZIBAR. 259 

approved of her visit, accompanied as she was everywhere 
by German naval officers. She dared not visit her own 
relations for fear of getting them into trouble, the Sultan 
being, so to speak, in the hands of the British government, 
but everywhere she went she found herself received with 
demonstrations of affectionate sympathy. Even her change 
of faith seems to have been condoned. She met one day 
two Arabs who proved to be from her own tribe; "And 
when I touched," she says, "on the religious question, one 
said : 'This fate had been destined to you from the begin- 
ning of the world. The God who has severed you and us 
from our homes is the same God whom all men adore and 
revere.' " 

"If foreigners," says the Princess, "had more frequent 
opportunities to observe the cheerfulness, the exuberance of 
spirits even, of Eastern women, they would soon, and more 
easily, be convinced of the untruth of all those stories afloat 
about the degraded, listless, and oppressed state of their 
lives. It is impossible to gain a true insight into the act- 
ual domesticity in a few moments' visit. And the conver- 
sation carried on on those ceremonious occasions barely 
deserves that name, being rarely more than the expression 
of a few remarks about dress, — and it is always question- 
able whether even these are rightly interpreted." 

That charming French writer, Madame Vincent (Arvede 
Barine), says, at the close of her review of this narrative of 
Princess Sal'me: — 

" It confirms what we knew before, viz., that there is incom- 
patibility of temperament between us and the Arabs. Neither 
time, nor policy, nor mission work will ever change it. It may be in 
our blood, it may be in their religion, but the antipathy is there ; 
it will endure from generation to generation. It is founded in 
nature. Princess SaPme has been trying to find out for twenty 
years why she cannot like us. She is trying still, and yet we can 
see the reason upon every page of her Memoirs. Her people and 
we are irreconcilable, because our differences of manners and 
customs make it impossible to put the same interpretation on 
such essential terms as ' the dignity of the human race,' or ' moral 



260 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

responsibility ; ' because we can never agree in our conception of 
man's duty in this life, or on the task confided to humanity ; be- 
cause the watchwords of the Arab and the Christian are diametri- 
cally opposed to each other. That of the Arab is : ' Stand still ! ' 
that of the Christian is : ' Press forward ! ' " 

But pressing forward involves an immense amount of 
disorder and discomfort; no vi^onder that the Oriental 
dreads the progressive spirit of the present day. 

Sultan Seyyid Burghash died in 1887, two months after 
he had kindly received Stanley, who was then on his way 
to the Congo, the Dark Forest, and the relief of Emin 
Pasha. He was succeeded by a brother, named Seyyid Ali, 
who, in 1893, was succeeded by his nephew. Said Hamid 
bin Thwain, whose power is far less than that inherited by 
Seyyid Burghash in 1870. 

In 1885 a Congress of the European powers met in Ber- 
lin to confer on the affairs of Africa. At the previous 
Berlin Congress of 1878, the plan of the Congo Free State 
under the protection of King Leopold of Belgium had 
been started, and the success that had attended the experi- 
ment and the partition of Western Africa among Portugal, 
France, and Great Britain, besides the territorial influence 
acquired by Belgium, induced the Germans to seek com- 
pensating power on the Dark Continent, while Great Brit- 
ain was stimulated by the discoveries and successes of Mr. 
Stanley, to desire to claim her part in the commerce, explo- 
rations, and missionary work of Eastern Africa. 

It was agreed, in 1885, by the European powers, that the 
east coast of Africa, unappropriated as yet by any civilized 
nation, should be divided into three spheres of influence 
among Italy, England, and Germany. " Each power pledged 
itself to confine its operations to its own sphere, and to 
proceed to organize and administer it, as opportunity 
offered, upon a civilized basis." The three powers did 
not propose to conquer or annex their "spheres of influ- 
ence." The plan was to charter companies which should, 
by lease, obtain authority from kings or tribal chiefs over 



ZANZIBAR. 261 

certain districts for which they should pay, as rent, an 
annual subsidy. The principal object of the partition 
among Italy, England, and Germany was, that each should 
confine its operations to its own field, uninterfered with 
by the others. A German company accordingly, in 1885, 
rented from the Sultan of Zanzibar (Seyyid Burghash, at 
that period) the long line of coast upon the mainland, 
including Bagamoyo, the African port opposite the island 
of Zanzibar. The company was to pay the Sultan an annual 
rent for the acquisition, and was entitled to appropriate the 
collection of customs. 

This arrangement did not last long. The agents of the 
company used their authority with masterful Teutonic 
hands. The Arabs were exasperated, and commenced 
hostilities. They murdered an English missionary who 
was making his way to the coast on his return to England, 
and with great difficulty Captain Lugard and some mis- 
sionary friends subsequently passed through them to em- 
bark at Mombassa. 

The German government had to intervene; the German 
Company was broken up, and the imperial government 
appointed Major von Weissman with full powers and ample 
means to suppress the revolt. 

"This led, in 1890, to the Anglo-German Convention, 
by which the German frontier was drawn about one degree 
south of the equator, across the Victoria Nyanza, and thence 
east to the Indian Ocean, skirting the northern base of the 
great mountain of Kilima Njaro to Wanga on the seacoast, 
a few miles south of the port of Mombassa. The British 
territory extended north from Wanga on the sea as far as 
the mouth of the Juba River, a distance of about four hun- 
dred and fifty miles of coast, and thence inland as far as 
the Congo state." ^ 

The Anglo-German agreement, signed July i, 1890, 
pledged England and Germany to advance the interests 
of the native races of their Hinterlands; to protect and to 

1 Slavery and the Slave-trade in Africa, by Henry M. Stanley, 1893. 



262 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

encourage Christian missions, of whatever creed; to co-op- 
erate for the suppression of the slave-trade; and to discour- 
age the importation of firearms. Each country, to secure 
its acquired rights, was to take care so far to extend its 
authority that it would not be possible for any power, soci- 
ety, or person to lay any claim to its lands, by right of a 
prior occupation. 

England's interests were confided to the Imperial British 
East African Company, already formed in 1885, which 
found itself thus bound to extend its authority over an 
immense extent of country, with very inadequate means. 
Its most important possession is its outlying dependency 
of Uganda. We have seen what difficulties it encountered 
there. Under its present resident ruler. Captain Williams, 
disputes have ceased to rage, at least they have not led 
again to war among the factions, but the great obstacle to 
progress is, that transportation to and from the coast is 
ruinously costly. Government had promised, when the 
company assumed its obligations, to build five hundred 
miles of railroad, from Mombassa to the Victoria Nyanza. 
The railroad has not yet been even begun. To send 
twelve tons of ammunition or supplies from the seacoast 
to Uganda costs three thousand six hundred pounds, or 
above seventeen thousand dollars. 

The Germans have been more active. They have put an 
end to slave-raids and to the passage of slave-caravans to 
the coast throughout their territory; they have supplied 
the coast with a large fleet of steamers, and are sending 
steam launches in sections to be put together and ply on 
their great lakes : the Victoria Nyanza, of which they hold 
the southern half and part of the eastern shore; Lake Tan- 
ganyika, and Lake Nyasa. They have surveyed, and are 
extending surveys for, several lines of railroad in their in- 
terior, and have already opened channels for a future exten- 
sion of commerce. 

The present Sultan of Zanzibar is now as much under 
English rule as any native prince in India, and yet there 



ZANZIBAR, 263 

not unfrequently occur cases of collision of authority. It 
was hoped that if Zanzibar were once placed within the 
sphere of English influence the slave-trade would die out 
for want of a base of operations, Zanzibar being the place 
on which Arab slave-traders had long depended for their 
supplies. There is no question that in Zanzibar itself, 
slaves were almost uniformly treated with kindness and 
even affection, and Princess Sal' me tells us it was the cus- 
tom of Arabs to set them free after faithful service of fifteen 
years. By treaty with the English, the Sultan of Zanzibar 
has prohibited the extension of slavery in his dominions; 
but Arab traders still look to Zanzibar for the supply of 
their needs, pretending that they are engaged in legitimate 
trafific. 

One difficulty that beset the British company was occa- 
sioned by an edict issued in September, 1891, after the 
Brussels Conference, which absolutely prohibited Europeans 
from enlisting Zanzibaris on the island, or in any part, 
whether nominal or actual, of the Sultan's dominions. 
The reason for this was, that so many Zanzibaris were 
found to be engaged in the work of porterage that lands 
all over the island were lying waste for want of peasant 
labor. As all transportation to the interior must at present 
be effected by man-power, this was a severe blow to the 
interests of the company. It is even doubtful how, under 
such conditions, laborers can be obtained to make a rail- 
way. One African official of great experience suggests the 
importation of what he calls the yellow race : the Hin- 
doos, the Sikhs, the Goanese, and other Indian peoples. 
His opinion is thus expressed in the " New Review " : — 

" The yellow race most successful hitherto in Eastern Africa 
is the native of Hindustan, — that race in divers types, and of 
divers religions, which under the British or Portuguese aegis has 
already created and developed the commerce of the East African 
littoral. The immigration of the docile, kindly, thrifty, industri- 
ous, clever-fingered, sharp-witted Indian into Central Africa will 
furnish us with the solid core of our armed forces on that conti- 



264 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

nent, and will supply us with the telegraph clerks, the petty- 
shop-keepers, the skilled artisans, the minor e^npioyes, the clerks 
and the railway officials needed in the civilized administration of 
tropical Africa. The Indian, liked both by black and white, will 
serve as a link between these two divergent races. Moreover, 
Africa, in opening this vast field to the enterprise and overflow 
of the yellow races of the Indian Empire, will direct a large cur- 
rent of wealth to the impoverished peninsula, and afford space 
for the reception, in not far-distant homes, of the surplus popula- 
tion of Southern Asia." ^ 

This seems to be looking very far ahead, however, since 
civilization can hardly be said, as yet, to have secured a 
sure footing in Eastern Africa. 

Captain Lugard, in view of the difficulties of transporta- 
tion, recommended human post-houses, military stations, 
along the route for the exchange of carriers; he advocated 
the introduction of camels; and urged attempts at the 
domestication of the zebra and the African elephant.^ 

At the present moment negotiations are going on between 
the Imperial British East African Company and the British 
government. The former has found its responsibilities too 
great, and has been glad to be relieved of them by the 
Imperial administration. England has thus assumed the 
obligation of building forts, as object-lessons to foreign 

1 H. H, Johnston, administrator at present of Nyasaland. 

2 On June 13, 1895, the British House of Commons at last agreed to 
a measure which pladged the country to build a railroad from the Indian 
Ocean to the Victoria Nyanza. It was not a party question, and the 
vote was almost unanimously in its favor, the House standing 249 to 51. 
The road will be about eight hundred miles long. Fifteen years ago no 
white man had entered the country through which the road is to be 
built ; it was the hunting ground of a great nomad people, the Masai, 
who were the terror of all the tribes living between the Victoria Nyanza 
and the sea. Eleven years ago Mr. Stanley said to a young explorer 
who proposed to venture into this country : " Take one thousand men 
with you or make your will." Mr. Thomson, however, accomplished 
his purpose with one hundred and fifty ; for even at that time the most 
formidable days of the Masai had passed away. They had been ruined 
by the cattle plague which swept over East Africa, and their only wealth 
having thus passed away from them, they are now settHng quietly down 
to till the soil for a living. — CvRUS C. Adams, N. Y. Sun, July 75, 18^3, 



ZANZIBAR. 265 

powers and the natives that her authority extends to cer- 
tain defined frontiers; it is she who is pledged to prevent 
slave-caravans from passing through these territories, and 
will enforce the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating 
drinks and firearms. The company claims reimbursement 
for money spent in upholding British influence in Uganda, 
for which, commercially, it can at present expect no 
return. The English parliament has been apparently not 
disposed to deal so liberally with its company in East Africa 
as the German Reichstag has done with a similar one. But 
then, the area in Africa over which England extends 
authority, influence, or protection is far larger than that 
of Germany, and great as may be Germany's zeal for col- 
onization, the claims upon her for help are far less.-^ 

1 " The old adage of ' better late than never ' is appHcable to the final 
settlement of the claims of the British East African Company, but it must 
be confessed that the delay has been little creditable to the government, 
who w^ere chiefly responsible for it. As matters now^ stand the com- 
pany are asked to surrender their concession to the Sultan of Zanzibar 
for the consideration of ^150,000, their private assets for another 
,^50,000, and their charter to our government for another ^50,000. 
The fairness of the company's demands has never been in question ; 
and the whole delay in coming to a settlement was caused by the 
haggling of our government as to what constituted the public and 
private assets of the company. ... In the meantime this pitiful 
question, involving a really paltry sum, has stood in the way of any of 
those steps which ought to be taken with a view of strengthening our 
position in East Africa. It is bad enough that the government should 
vacillate between two opinions as to the value of its interests in that 
region, but almost worse that it should attempt to treat with harshness 
the private company that has had the public spirit to undertake and 
perform the government's own duties." — Weekly Graphic, March 30, 
1895. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE BARBARY STATES. 

THE Moors of Barbary have given to European lan- 
guages the adjectives "barbarous," " barbai'e,^' ^^ bar- 
baro^ They were the sea robbers, the arch-pirates, who 
swept the Mediterranean (sometimes indeed remoter seas), 
and hindered commerce between the West and East, during 
the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, 
nay, even to the first quarter of the century now fading into 
the past. Not that piracy in the Mediterranean originated 
with the Moors of Barbary. Pirates in the Greek islands 
were the successors of Sextus Pompeius and his galleys. 
The Turks early took up the same career. A Turkish 
pirate became the ally and brother-in-arms of a Greek 
emperor, who gave him his daughter in marriage. " Risk, 
uncertainty, danger, a sense of superior skill, and ingenuity, 
will always attract the adventurous spirit — the love of sport 
— which is inherent in mankind." But an immense stimu- 
lus was given to this spirit of adventure when Ferdinand and 
Isabella expelled the Moors from Spain and continued their 
work by the persecution and exile of Moriscoes and Jews. 

Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole, author of "A History of the Moors 
in Spain," who has recently written the " Story of the Barbary 
Corsairs," speaks thus upon this subject : — 

'' No sooner was Granada fallen than thousands of desperate 
Moors left the land which for seven hundred years had been 
their home, and disdaining to live under a Spanish yoke, crossed 
the Strait to Africa, where they established themselves at various 
strong points, notably Algiers, which till then had been Uttle 
heard of. No sooner were the banished Moors fairly settled in 

266 



THE BARBARY STATES. 26/ 

their new seats, than they did what every one else in their place 
would have done, they carried the war into their oppressor's 
country. To meet the Spaniards in the open field was impossi- 
ble with their reduced numbers, but at sea their fleetness and 
knowledge of the coasts gave them the opportunity for reprisal 
for which they longed. . , . It must also be remembered that 
just about this time, when the Corsairs made their appearance 
in Barbary, the riches of the new-found Western world began 
to pour through the Straits to meet those of the East, which 
were brought to France and Spain, England and Holland, from 
Alexandria and Smyrna. Any bold man who could hold Tunis 
or Algiers, Ceuta or Tangier, might reckon on numerous oppor- 
tunities of stopping argosies of untold wealth as they passed by 
his lair." 

The three countries now called Tunis, Algeria, and Mo- 
rocco were held, up to the sixteenth century, by Moham- 
medan princes of their own, who, exercising hospitality, the 
most conspicuous virtue of Islamism, welcomed their Spanish 
coreligionists, and opened their ports to their enterprises. 
The government of the Barbary states had for two centuries 
been tolerant to Christians and friendly to European powers, 
but as soon as the Moorish Corsairs had made good their 
footing this policy was changed. 

The sons of a Greek renegade, a native of Lesbos, became 
conspicuous figures in the sixteenth century. They were 
indeed the most famous pirates in history. We know them 
both as Barbarossa (red-beard); the elder was Uraj (or Araj), 
the younger Kheyr~ed-Din (or Heyreddin). Both were 
distinguished by their auburn hair and their red beards, 
both for their seamanship, diplomacy, and audacity. Uraj, — 
i.e. Barbarossa the first,— " after acquiring great reputation as 
a sea-captain, made an alliance with the King of Tunis, who 
offered him the shelter of his ports, covenanting at the same 
time to receive one-fifth of his captured spoils." 

Quarrelling after a time with the King of Tunis, down on 
whom he had drawn the wrath of the Genoese, Barbarossa 
made another piratical settlement upon the coast, and became 
Sultan of Jijil. An appeal for his help was soon made by 
the Moors of Algiers, who for seven years had suffered from 



268 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY.. 

an embargo laid upon their commerce by the Spaniards. 
The deaths of Ferdinand and Isabella roused them to resist- 
ance ; they secured the aid of a neighboring Arab sheikh who 
promised to assist them on the land side ; but there was a 
Spanish garrison in their fort, and to get rid of it they needed 
a naval force. Who so proper to afford this help to Moslem 
brethren as Barbarossa ? 

Soon, however, the old story was repeated. Barbarossa, 
called in to help, lost little time in making himself master. 
He became Sultan of Algiers and its surrounding country, 
and all Europe began to eye him with considerable anxiety. 
His dominions nearly coincided with modern Algeria. He 
had Tunis on his east, and Fez on his western frontier. He 
was in a position to form alliances with Fez and Morocco. 
But his career was nearly over. A large force sent against 
him by Charles V. defeated his army, and in a brave attempt 
to succor his rear guard after he himself was safe from pur- 
suit, he was slain, at the age of forty-four, leaving neither son 
nor daughter. He had made his headquarters in Barbary 
for fourteen years, doing all the harm he could to Chris- 
tians. " He was highly beloved, feared, and respected by 
his soldiers and domestics, and when he died was by them 
most bitterly lamented." 

His fame and his power, even his war name Barbarossa, 
fell to his brother Kheyr-ed-Din, a man as astute as he was 
brave. He sent an ambassador to Constantinople to lay his 
humble homage at the feet of the Grand Seignior, and to 
beg His Majesty's favor and protection for the new province 
of Algiers, which his servant had added to the Ottoman 
Empire. The Sultan granted his petition very willingly. 
He had just conquered Egypt and Tripoli, and the acquisi- 
tion of Algiers was an important extension of his dominion 
in Africa. He loaded the new Barbarossa with honors, sent 
him a force of two thousand Janissaries, and bestowed on 
him a horse, a scimitar, and a horse-tail banner. 

As soon as Kheyr-ed-Din felt secure upon his throne he 
resumed his piratical profession, with almost unbroken sue- 



THE BARBARY STATES. 269 

cess, in the western waters of the Mediterranean. Solyman 
the Magnificent, who had conquered Rhodes and planned 
the subjugation of Italy, resolved to reorganize the Ottoman 
fleet, and, in 1533, summoned the ruler of Algiers to Constan- 
tinople. Kheyr-ed-Din's fame as a naval commander was 
great, both among Christians and Moslems. He alone might 
defy the great Genoese commander Andrea Doria, then 
cruising unopposed in the Mediterranean. Great was the 
joy of the Sultan when the Barbary fleet, gaily dressed 
with colors, rounded Seraglio Point and anchored before 
Constantinople. Barbarossa and his eighteen captains were 
cordially received by their cahph and suzerain. The red- 
bearded old sea-dog was made commander in chief of the 
Turkish navy, and spent the whole of that winter in the 
dock-yards of Constantinople constructing and fitting out 
vessels. 

The Turks had now all the African seacoast on the Medi- 
terranean except Tunis and Morocco ; and Tunis they pro- 
posed to have. For three centuries it had been ruled with 
mildness and justice by its own sultans, and had kept up, 
on the whole, friendly relations with European powers, but 
the reigning prince had won the throne by murdering forty- 
four of his own brothers, after which the little state had been 
weakened by jealous rivalries. Tunis, like Algiers, was 
added to the Ottoman Empire by Kheyr-ed-Din's masterful 
hands. It was won by him and lost by him, for Hassan, 
the expelled king, appealed for aid to Charles V., who, 
unwilling to see the Turks such near neighbors to Sicily, 
sent a large expedition under Doria to reinstate Hassan. 
The flower of the Spanish troops was a small body of the 
Knights of St. John. The Christians restored Hassan, to 
the intense disgust of his own subjects, over whom he 
reigned five years, till his own son blinded and imprisoned 
him. 

This is not the place to tell of the great naval rivalry 
between Doria and Barbarossa. The contest between them 
ended in a drawn battle, but as two hundred splendid 



2/0 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

Christian ships had fled before an inferior force of Ottoman 
galleys, Sultan Solyman, when on one of his campaigns he 
heard the news, ordered pubHc rejoicings, and made a 
magnificent addition to the revenues of his great admiral. 

In 1543, when Francis I. of France was for a time in 
alliance with Turkey, Barbarossa sailed with 150 ships into 
the port of Marseilles. He wintered at Toulon, and sent 
expeditions to plunder the coasts of Italy. A French con- 
tingent was put under his command, but he said of it scorn- 
fully, when it had to return to port for ammiUnition, " Fine 
soldiers are they ! — to fill their ships with wine casks, and 
leave the powder barrels behind ! " 

It must have been not a little trying to the French to 
see hundreds of Christian captives chained to the oars of 
Barbarossa's galleys, for that captain, all through his career, 
kept his Moslems to fight and his captives to row for them. 

Finally the French, having, at great expense, got rid of 
Barbarossa, the old Corsair sailed away, with his ships laden 
with spoils. But this was the last of his exploits. He 
died two years later, in July, 1546, being then about ninety 
years old, that is, twice the age of his illustrious brother. 
" The Chief of the Sea is dead ! " said his coreligionists, who 
long honored the memory of their great admiral. 

Shortly before Barbarossa's death a great expedition was 
set on foot by Charles V. to crush the Corsairs. He had 
conquered Tunis, though somehow it slipped out of his 
hands ; now he proudly resolved to lead an expedition 
in person against Algiers. Ill luck attended him from 
the outset. With his army utterly broken and his fleet 
almost destroyed, he made a disastrous retreat. Herman 
Cortes, then home from Mexico, was in the expedition, and 
offered his master advice, which the emperor was too proud 
to follow. Algiers was left stronger and more defiant than 
ever. 

The story of the defense of Malta by its knights when 
besieged by Dragut, one of Barbarossa's captains, the man 
who succeeded him as Capitan Pasha of the Ottoman fleet, 



THE BARBAE Y S TA TES. 2 / 1 

is one of the most thrilling and picturesque narratives in 
history. It has been told by Mr. Prescott in his " Reign of 
Philip II.," and who could tell it better? Dragut was struck 
down, and the Turks were in the end repulsed. " In all his- 
tory," says the author of "The Story of the Barbary Corsairs," 
" there is no record of such a siege, of such disproportionate 
numbers, and of such a glorious outcome. The Knights of 
Malta live forever among heroes ! " 

After this, for a long succession of years, — 
*' It is not too much to say that the history of the foreign 
relations of Algiers and Tunis is one long indictment of not 
one, but of all, the maritime powers of Europe, on the 
charge of cowardice and dishonor. There had been some 
excuse for dismay at the powerful armaments and inimitable 
seamanship of Barbarossa, or the fateful ferocity of Dragut, 
but that all the maritime powers should have cowered and 
cringed as they did before the miserable braggarts who 
succeeded the heroic age of the Corsairs, should have 
suffered their trade to be harassed, their coasts menaced, 
and their representatives to be insulted by a series of 
insolent savages, whose entire fleet and army could not 
have stood for a day before any properly generaled fleet of 
any European power, seems absolutely incredible, and yet 
it is literally true." ^ 

One of the pirates appeared in the northern seas, and 
raided the coast of Ireland, sacking the town of Baltimore, 
and carrying off from it two hundred and thirty-seven pris- 
oners, men, women, and children. "A piteous sight it was 
to see them exposed for sale at Algiers," says a Redemp- 
tionist Father, one of an order set on foot to negotiate for 
the ransom of Roman Catholic Christian captives; and 
large legacies were sometimes left by dying Englishmen for 

1 While writing these pages I took down an old Appleton's Cyclo- 
pedia, published in 1827, to verify a date, and was astonished to see 
the desponding way in which the writer talked of the prospect of 
extinguishing Algerian piracy, and the little hope he seemed to have 
that any good would result from the impending expedition of the 
French. 



2/2 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY, 

the ransom of Protestants. Yet, after all, the funds thus 
expended served only to rescue a few drops from the great 
sea of misery. The Corsair who sacked Baltimore was a 
renegade Fleming. Indeed, nearly all the leading Corsairs 
were renegades: Germans, Greeks, Flemings, or Italians. 
In the early part of this present century there was a Scottish 
renegade of some mark among them. All nations paid trib- 
ute (called presents) to the Bashaw of Tripoli, to the- Bey 
of Tunis, and to the Dey of Algiers, in hopes of securing 
safety for their subjects on the high seas. Their consuls 
led a dog's life, being obliged to humble themselves in the 
presence of Moslem tyrants, notably in that of the Dey of 
Algiers, who was always some common soldier elected by 
his comrades, the Janissaries. 

In 1 7 12 the Dutch purchased the forbearance of the Dey 
by ten 24-pounders, mounted, twenty-five large masts (the 
Algerines were hard put to it to get timber for ship build- 
ing), five cables, two hundred and forty barrels of powder, 
twenty-five hundred great shot, fifty chests of gun-barrels, 
swords, etc., and five thousand dollars. This largesse 
secured them peace for only three years. 

The story of the first dealings of the United States with 
the powers on the Barbary coast will show the relation that 
these barbarous princes held, at the beginning of this cen- 
tury, with civilized nations. 

In January, 1798, we have the record of the frigate 
Crescent, which sailed from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 
to be delivered over to the Dey of Algiers, as " compensa- 
tion ■ for delay on the part of the United States in fulfil- 
ling their treaty obligation to pay him tribute." She carried 
also valuable presents, among them twenty barrels of dol- 
lars. Her captain, the majority of her officers, and many of 
her seamen, had all, at one time, been captives in Algiers. 
The result of sending this handsome present to the Dey, 
was that the Bashaw of Tripoli and the Bey of Tunis 
complained that the United States had sent them nothing. 
The Bashaw (or Pasha) of Tripoli declared war in conse- 




CAPTAIN WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE. 



THE BARBARY STATES. 2/3 

quence against the United States, which meant that his 
Corsairs should take their ships as prizes; and the Bey of 
Tunis demanded ten thousand stand of arms, saying, inso- 
lently, to the American consul : " Tell your government to 
send them without delay; peace depends upon compli- 
ance." The United States were consequently at war with 
Tunis and Tripoli. 

In May, 1800, the George Washington frigate, under 
command of Captain Bainbridge, was sent to Algiers to 
carry the annual tribute. On her arrival, the Dey demanded 
that she should take from him an embassy to Constantinople 
with presents that he was anxious to send at once to the Sul- 
tan, whom he had offended by making a treaty with France 
for the protection of French merchantmen, while that power 
was at war with his suzerain. Captain Bainbridge refused 
to do the Dey this service, whereupon the Dey changed his 
request to a demand, threatening to blow the ship out of the 
water if it were not complied with. The Geo7'ge Washifig- 
ton lay right under the guns of the Algerine batteries. The 
consul assured Captain Bainbridge that English, French, 
and Spanish war ships had complied with similar demands, 
and he at last consented. The Dey's argument was: "You 
pay me tribute, by which you become my slaves. I have 
a right to order you to do what I think proper." He fur- 
ther insisted that this American frigate should fly at her 
mainmast the Algerine colors, giving a second place to the 
Stars and Stripes. This demand, also. Captain Bainbridge 
thought it prudent to comply with, till he got out of gun- 
shot, when he hauled down the Algerine flag, and the Star- 
Spangled Banner was run up to its proper place. At Con- 
stantinople this first war ship of the new nation was very 
kindly received by the Sultan. Not so the Dey's ambassa- 
dors, who were refused pardon unless their master declared 
war with France in sixty days. 

Captain Bainbridge, before his departure from 'Constan- 
tinople, received a firman assuring him and his ship of the 
Sultan's favor and protection. 



274 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

On returning to Algiers, the captain took care to bring 
his ship to anchor out of range of the shore batteries, and 
it was well he did so, for the Dey's plan was to bring his 
guns to bear upon the vessel, seize all her ofificers and sea- 
men, and then declare war against his rebellious tributa- 
ries. Having brought the United States government to a 
better frame of mind, by threats of torturing and murdering 
his prisoners, he would then refuse to grant peace unless he 
received promises of better behavior in future, and an im- 
mense ransom for the George Washington's officers and men. 

Captain Bainbridge at, last, at the earnest solicitation of 
the American consul, and assurances of his personal safety, 
consented to appear before the Dey in his council cham- 
ber. The tyrant flew into a rage, and threatened him with 
torture and captivity. But his wrath changed almost to 
servility when Captain Bainbridge produced the firman 
given him at Constantinople, which all feudatories of the 
Sultan were bound to obey. 

The next day war was declared against the French, and 
the Dey threatened to put every French man, woman, and 
child into irons who was found in his dominions after 
forty-eight hours. America had not concluded peace 
with France, but Captain Bainbridge offered an asylum on 
board his ship to those unfortunate persons, and with his 
decks crowded with passengers, among them the family of 
the French consul, he set sail for Alicante, and landed 
them full of gratitude for his generous assistance. 

In May, 1801, a squadron was fitted out, consisting of 
three frigates and a 12 -gun schooner, to bring to reason the 
Bashaw of Tripoli, and strike terror also, if possible, into 
the rulers of Tunis and Algiers. The latter gave in at once 
at sight of so formidable an armament, and the squadron 
remained some weeks upon the coast, watching over the 
interests of American merchantmen, and convoying them 
in safety through the Straits of Gibraltar. Although no 
attempt was made to attack Tripoli, so great was the fear 
America inspired along the Barbary coast, that during the 



THE BARBAE Y STA TES. 2/5 

winter of 1801-1802 not a single American ship was cap- 
tured. 

After several small successes, during 1803, Commodore 
Morris was superseded by Captain Edward Preble, a native 
of Maine, a thorough seaman, a strict disciplinarian, a 
man of quick temper (which he inherited from his father, 
General Jedediah Preble, who had commanded the Massa- 
chusetts troops at the siege of Louisburg) and of undaunted 
resolution and bravery. It was not long before he had 
succeeded in bringing the Dey of Algiers to reason, and 
next he turned his attention to Tripoli. Unhappily the 
Philadelphia, which Captain Bainbridge now commanded, 
while blockading that port ran aground upon a reef, and 
was at last obliged, to strike her colors. Before this was 
done, however, her guns were thrown overboard, and her 
magazine was flooded. The captain, oflicers, and crew, 
three hundred and fifteen in all, were carried in triumph 
as prisoners to the city. They were lodged in the citadel, 
which was also the Bashaw's palace, but they were not 
treated with great rigor.^ The Philadelphia was got off the 
reef by the Tripolitans and repaired. A court-martial, held 
to inquire into her loss, paid a high compliment to the 
fortitude and conduct of Captain Bainbridge. 

An immense ransom was demanded for the captives, and 
meantime they were harassed by continual demands, with 
which, in honor, they could not possibly comply, in spite 
of threats of torture and decapitation. 

Captain Bainbridge, by means of letters written with 
lemon juice, contrived to communicate to Commodore Preble 
a plan for recapturing the Philadelphia, or, at least, destroy- 

1 One of them was John Wallace Wormeley, my father's cousin. My 
grandfather, then in England, made great efforts to ransom him. He 
returned at last to his family in Virginia. An old family servant, then 
a child on his father's plantation, has described to me the excitement m 
the family, among the neighbors, and in the quarter, on Mas' Wallace's 
return ; and the amazement among the servants that he had been a 
slave in Africa to black people. A pipe of Madeira was broached on the 
occasion, and whites and blacks held high festival to celebrate his return. 



276 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

ing her. It would be impossible, in the space I could give 
to the subject, to describe the brilliant enterprise by which 
Stephen Decatur, then a lieutenant, carried out the plan 
communicated to his commander by Captain Bainbridge. 

As we read accounts of these early operations of the 
United States Navy, it is surprising to see how many well- 
known names we meet; men whose families occupy lead- 
ing social positions, and men who subsequently rose high 
in the service of their country. The Philadelphia was 
boarded and blown up, on a dark night, by a boat's crew 
commanded by Decatur. "The mighty frigate was rent 
by the terrible explosion into fragments, which, hurled 
upward, blazing, into the night, gracefully curved and 
descended into the sea like a cascade of fire." Nelson, 
then in command of the British fleet blockading Toulon, 
spoke of it as "the most bold and daring act of the age." 

The loss of his prize exasperated the Bashaw, who at 
once vented his disappointment on his prisoners. They 
were all confined together in one close, damp apartment, 
with a grating in the roof which alone admitted light and 
air. 

After this. Commodore Preble made active preparations 
for the bombardment of Tripoli. The American force was 
greatly inferior, in guns and men, to that of the Tripolitans. 
In one boat affair the brother of Decatur was treacherously 
killed after the Turks had surrendered, and Lieutenant 
Stephen Decatur, burning to avenge his brother, engaged 
in a hand-to-hand struggle with his murderer, in which he 
would have met his death but for the bravery and prompt- 
itude of a wounded seaman. 

This attack and bombardment had been productive of 
great loss to the enemy, but it was not conclusive. 

On August 7 a second bombardment took place, the guns 
being chiefly directed against the citadel where the Bashaw 
kept his prisoners, hoping that the American ships would 
on that account not fire on his stronghold. All this time 
the weather was extremely rough. It was next resolved to 




COMMODORE EDWARD PREBLE. 



THE BARBARY STATES. 2/7 

send in a ketch fitted up as a floating mine, and explode 
her in the midst of the ships of the enemy lying in the 
harbor. She was commanded by Master-commandant 
Richard Somers, and his second in command was Lieu- 
tenant Henry Wadsworth (uncle of the poet, Henry Wads- 
worth Longfellow).^ They were joined at the last moment, 
without orders, by midshipman Joseph Israel. Every man 
on board the ketch had devoted himself to death, and, alas, 
they all perished. She ran aground, was attacked by Tri- 
politan gun-boats and blown up by her officers, destroying 
at the same time the Tripolitan gun-boats that surrounded 
her. 

The weather being very boisterous, on September 5, 1804, 
part of the fleet was withdrawn, leaving enough, however, 
to blockade the port of Tripoli, and Commodore Preble 
returned to the United States in the John Adams, reaching 
it in February, 1805; when Congress voted him a gold 
medal for "his distinguished services," and voted "also a 
sword to be presented to each of the commissioned officers 
and midshipmen who had distinguished themselves in these 
several attacks, and one month's pay be given to the squad- 
ron." 

Meantime, a plot, encouraged by Captain Bainbridge, 
who, though a captive, managed to keep well informed on 
Tripolitan affairs, was on foot to dethrone the reigning 
Bashaw, Yusef Karamauli, who had usurped the throne and 
exiled his brother Hamet. The latter, a wanderer in 
Egypt among the Mamelukes, was very ready to raise a 
force and co-operate with the Americans. " His army was 
a rabble of twenty thousand undisciplined banditti, eager 
for pillage." The Bashaw, Yusef Karamauli, finding his 
situation desperate, now offered to come to terms with the 
United States. Some of the captives were to be exchanged 
for Tripolitan prisoners, and the rest were to be redeemed 

1 Mr. James Russell Lowell once wrote to me : " My maternal 
grandfather was also a sufferer by the Barbary Corsairs. He was an 
officer on board the Philadelphia^'' 



278 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

for six thousand dollars. He also relinquished all claim 
to tribute from the Americans. Hamet, who had not 
proved himself a satisfactory ally, was pensioned by the 
government at Washington on two hundred dollars a month. 

Meantime the United States had another enemy upon 
their hands, — the Bey of Tunis, — who was disposed to 
consider America an "unimportant nation," of a new 
and distant world. Commodore Rodgers, however, who 
had succeeded Commodore Preble, soon convinced him of 
his mistake. The show of a large fleet imposed on him, 
and a treaty of peace was signed under the very guns of his 
batteries. 

In September, 1805, a Tunisian minister embarked for 
the United States, and in due time reached Washington.^ 
The result of all this roused the conscience of other pow- 
ers, who had so tamely submitted to the insolence of the 
corsairs ; and it was generally remarked that no nation had 
ever before negotiated with the potentates upon the coast 
of Barbary on such honorable terms. From that day the 
power that for six hundred years had defied Christendom 
was almost over. 

Nine years later, after the close of the war of 18 12, the 
United States determined to follow up their success in 
Tripoli and Tunis by obtaining from the Dey of Algiers a 
treaty by which their payment of tribute or of presents was 
abolished; all American captives and property were released 
and the United States were placed on the footing of the 
most favored nations. England followed this up by mak- 
ing terms for some of her Mediterranean dependencies, but 
these treaties were made on the basis of tribute and pres- 
ents. After Lord Exmouth had arranged the matter with 

^ He afterwards paid a visit to Boston, when my grandfather, Mr. 
Eben Preble (brother of the commodore), entertained him at his 
country place. There he endeavored to persuade my mother, a fair- 
haired child of seven, to give him a kiss. He tried to bribe her with a 
promise of some attar of rose. But she was not to be persuaded, being 
afraid of his black beard. On his return to Tunis he, however, sent 
her a box containing twelve large-sized bottles of the delicious perfume. 



THE BARBAE Y STA TES. 2/9 

Algiers, he went on to Tunis and Tripoli, and obtained a 
promise that they would abolish Christian slavery. Strange 
to say, Caroline, Princess of Wales, the wandering wife of 
the Prince Regent, was the guest of the Bey of Tunis at 
the time Lord Exmouth was threatening to bombard his 
city. Her intervention was requested by the Bey, but she 
intervened in vain, and became much alarmed lest she 
should be imprisoned as a hostage. The Bey assured her, 
however, that, being his guest, she was under the protec- 
tion of the Moslem rules, enjoining hospitality. 

Holland declined to pay tribute in 1819, but Italy paid 
it up to 1827. 

Lord Exmouth had hardly returned to England after the 
conclusion of his treaty with Algiers before that treaty was 
violated, and he went back with a large squadron of eigh- 
teen war vessels. The Dey imprisoned the English consul, 
confining him, half-naked, in the cell set apart for con- 
demned murderers, loading him with chains and fastening 
him to the wall, exposed to heavy rains, and momentarily 
expecting his doom. Lord Exmouth, however, gained by 
threats a complete victory; though its results were hardly 
as complete as they should have been. However, a new 
treaty was signed, by which, in future, all prisoners of war 
were to be exchanged and not enslaved; and the whole 
number of Christian slaves in Algiers, then only sixteen 
hundred and forty-two, were set at liberty. These were 
chiefly Italians — only eighteen of them were Englishmen. 

This victory and this treaty, however, did not very much 
intimidate the Dey. So late as 1824 he continued to com- 
mit outrages, and then the matter was taken up by France 
in conjunction with England. France, desiring settlements 
on the southern shores of the Mediterranean, undertook to 
deal with the matter more radically than England and the 
United States had done. 

A private quarrel between the French consul at Algiers 
and the Dey, in 1827, led to a blockade of the Algerine 
coast by a French squadron, which lasted two years. Just 



280 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

as the Revolution of July, 1830, was at hand, a French fleet 
landed an army on the coast, which slowly pressed its way 
into the city. The Dey surrendered, and, with his family, 
was sent in a French frigate to Naples. The French took 
possession of Algiers. Thus began their rule in Africa; 
and so ended the career of the Algerine Corsairs. 

I may best tell the story of the French in Algeria in a 
future chapter. Indeed, I have partly told the story once 
before elsewhere.^ Algeria has been a school in which 
French marshals have been trained, and Frenchmen have 
found an outlet for hot blood and dreams of glory; but 
French rule in Algeria has been purely military and bureau- 
cratic. Yet, though the wild tribes continue rude, the 
Arabs, who dwell beside the French in cities, have settled 
down peaceably, as apparently all Arabs will do under sim- 
ilar circumstances. The Arab needs his desert and his 
horse to prove himself an Arab. 

Recently, in 188 1, France has made another acquisition 
on the northern coast of Africa. She coveted Tunis. This 
shoulder of Africa, lying as it does half-way between Gib- 
raltar and the Suez Canal, may probably play an important 
part in the fortunes of the Mediterranean, should the peace 
of the world be disturbed in the century at hand. Through 
the narrow channel between Sicily and Cape Bon passes 
the main stream of traffic from the East to western Europe. 
Tunis has been greatly desired by Italy, being so near her 
southern shores. It contained a very large Italian popula- 
tion in 1 88 1, and very few Frenchmen. The boundary line 
between Tunis and Algeria was ill-defined. Nomadic 
tribes could hardly be expected to respect it. An incursion 
of Kroumirs upon the soil of Algeria led to warlike opera- 
tions on the part of the large army of French always sta- 
tioned in Algeria. In six weeks they had forced the Bey 
to sign away the independence of his country, and Tunis 
was a protectorate in French hands. It was in this cam- 
paign that General Boulanger won fame and honor. The 

1 France in the Nineteenth Century, page 82, etc. 



THE BA REAR Y STATES. 2 8 1 

Italians were furiously angry at the French occupation of 
Tunis, and it is a very bitter thought with them that they 
might have anticipated France, and have done the same 
thing. They could hardly, however, have moved troops 
into Tunis so quietly as the French, whose large forces in 
Algeria entered, as it were, by the back door, and had 
done their work before diplomatic obstruction had arisen. 
Italy still maintains that if any European power is to pos- 
sess Tunis she has the best right to it. She even owns a 
railroad along the coast from Tunis to Goletta. 

As far as an army and a large staff of office-holders can 
promote civilization and improvement, French rule in 
Tunis has proved a success. There are railroads, tele- 
graphic lines, post-ofifices, and roads in all directions, but, 
except in the city of Tunis, there are not in the whole 
country one thousand Frenchmen. The need of France is 
Frenchmen; and why she should be continually grasping 
after territorial expansion is a mysterious problem to the 
rest of the world. The vast tracts of the earth's surface that 
she claims, but cannot settle, are a constant drain upon her 
treasury, and in case of war may prove her weakness. In 
the twentieth century, however, to use her own familiar 
expression, "we may see what we shall see." Meantime 
Tunis has ceased to be a protectorate and has become a 
regency. The Bey is still its nominal ruler, and the 
French regent who acts for him is called a resident-gen- 
eral. 

France is thought to cast longing eyes on Tripoli. But 
Tripoli is faithful to the Porte, and the Porte watches jeal- 
ously over this last remnant of her African possessions. 
No less jealously would England regard any French inter- 
ference in Tripoli, which touches Egypt on it eastern fron- 
tier. 

Tripoli continues to be a Turkish vilayet, — that is, a 
province governed by a pasha. Such provinces have very 
little history, unless they revolt under oppression; and the 
rule of the Bashaws of Tripoli has been generally mild. 



282 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

The most interesting thing about modern Tripoli is the 
history of its Mahdi. His name is Mohammed ben Ali 
ben Senoussi. His father was a native of Algeria, and, 
undoubtedly, descended from Fatima, the only daughter of 
Mahomet. Early in the century the Turks, who were op- 
posed to his reforms, exiled him from Algeria. He took 
refuge in Morocco, and soon became known as a celebrated 
preacher. He visited Mecca, passing through Egypt, and 
making no small stir among orthodox Mohammedans by 
his zeal and eloquence as a revivalist. At Mecca his 
mission seems to have been disregarded, but he enjoyed 
the good-will of the Sultan, and retiring to Tripoli, sought 
refuge in the hills near ancient Cyrene. There he erected 
a convent, and turned it into a sort of seminary for preach- 
ers, who went forth teaching in his name. This was about 
fifty years since, in 1845. A few years later he moved to 
an oasis in the desert, called Jerboub, which has ever since 
been the headquarters of his influence and his followers. 

Jerboub lies remote from the control of any organized 
government. It is in the Libyan desert, on an important 
caravan route between Northwestern Africa and the Nile 
delta. It is a convent settlement, with its college attached, 
standing alone in its oasis, remote from other populations. 
Pilgrims, however, visit it in crowds. The fact that the 
Caliph — the Sultan at Constantinople — looks kindly on 
its prophet has, probably, a great effect. While the fol- 
lowers of Senoussi are very strict as regards Mohamme- 
dan observances, they do not require rigid uniformity on all 
points of doctrine, consequently they have absorbed several 
other Mohammedan sects, all of whom unite in bitter 
enmity to Christians. 

When the old Senoussi died, whom his followers had 
looked upon as a prophet, he indicated his son as the 
Mahdi, and his followers now style him by that name, 
though he has never formally assumed it. 

The Central African Mohammedan sultanate Wadai, 
which lies east of Lake Tchad, and west of the Soudan 



THE BARBAE Y STA TES. 283 

provinces, now under the yoke of the Khalifa Abdullah, 
acknowledges the spiritual superiority of the prophet of Jer- 
boub. The spread of his influence in Central Africa has 
been rapid and very great. Meantime he sits in close retire- 
ment in his great convent. He has the blue eyes and the 
mark between the shoulders that were to be signs of the 
true Mahdi, but he has never employed any but peaceful 
means to spread his doctrines. The Soudanese Mahdi 
Mohammed Ahmed invited him to join him and to become 
one of his khalifas, to which proposal the prophet of Jer- 
boub vouchsafed no reply.-^ 

" While the Mahdism of the Soudan has carried everywhere 
waste and war, the teachings of the prophet Senoussi and his 
followers have carried into the districts over which their influence 
has gained sway, peace, order, and prosperity. Wliiie professing 
to discourage modern civilization, Senoussi and his teachers have 
given a new impulse to agriculture, to the opening of wells, to 
the planting of date palms, and the sowing of crops. His fol- 
lowers respect their Mahdi, and not only him, but also his depu- 
ties, and the situation is utterly different from that prevailing on 
the Nile, where the Khalifa Abdullah holds the power of the 
sword. Mahdism, as associated with the name of Mohammed 
Ahmed, is almost dead ; Mahdism, as it might be associated with 
the name of Mohammed es Senoussi, is a force dormant at present 
but representing a formidable and growing power." 

Some people have a theory that Northern Africa, along 
the shores of the Mediterranean, is in no sense negro- 
Africa, though in recent centuries much negro blood has 
been mixed with that of the Moors. They declare that 
Northern Africa is European; that in every way its plants, 
its animals, its insects, and its native population bear wit- 
ness to its having been as entirely European as Spain or 
Greece, until the Saracens from the Orient made it their 
home. 

An Englishman arriving in Tangier feels at once as " if 
he were suddenly set down in the life of the Old Testa- 

1 By last advices Senoussi has mysteriously quitted Jerboub with a 
large following, and gone it is not known whither. 



284 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XTXTH CENTURY. 

ment," which is not negro life at all. The Kabyles, — 
aboriginal Berbers, — "stranded Europeans," some one calls 
them, — who still vigorously subsist in the midst of a Mo- 
hammedan folk, were once Christians. They are reduced, 
for the time being, to the faith and the manners of Islam, 
but they remain for all that essentially European in m^ny 
underlying ideas, habits, and customs. A recent writer 
says : — 

" The Kabyle resembles essentially in all important points the 
European Mediterranean population . . . and as his blonde 
complexion, his blue eyes, his ruddy hair, and his high straight 
forehead point him out at once as in all fundamentals a European 
though in haick and burnous, so in spite of generations of Islam 
do his language, his life, and his arts also. . . . He is not a 
polygamist. He has but one wife, who lives with him, not in 
subjection and inferiority like an Arab woman. ... In Kabylia 
the face of wife or maiden is never veiled, and, strange to say, it 
still bears a remote mark of Christian influence, a cross being 
tattooed on it in childhood. . . . The whole surface of the 
country is strewn with the remains of Roman civilization. 
Rome Romanized as well as conquered. Roman amphitheatres, 
baths, and temples of extreme magnificence stand even far among 
the mountains. Aqueducts span half the gorges and ravines. 
Mosaics and inscriptions turn up by the dozen. Not even, I 
venture to say, in Provence itself, do Roman ruins and Roman 
remains strew the soil in such astonishing numbers as in these 
Berber countries." 

As regards the revival of civilization in North Africa, 
Morocco alone still holds aloof. Already, however, a rail- 
road in Algeria skirts her frontier, and some think this the 
thin edge of the wedge to introduce French influence, 
whenever the overthrow of the reigning Shereefian dynasty 
gives France her opportunity. But it is Spain that keeps 
a jealous eye upon Morocco, and looks on it as her legiti- 
mate acquisition in the future. 

Morocco is the finest portion of North Africa; its moun- 
tains are the highest, its rivers are the longest, its harvests 
are the richest, and its rainfall the most abundant. 

We know very little of the geography of Morocco; by we 



THE BARBAE Y STATES. 285 

I mean to designate the general reader. It has several large 
provinces, each governed by its viceroy, and innumerable 
nomadic as well as settled tribes. Among its provinces are 
Fez, Tafilet, and Wazan. Fez and Wazan border on Alge- 
ria. Tafilet lies among the Atlas Mountains. Wazan is 
governed by hereditary chiefs, all-powerful in their own 
dominions. 

Morocco was never largely engaged in piracy. When 
she sent forth a sea-rover it was generally from Salee on 
the Atlantic, a place known to the greater part of us only 
through its connection with an early adventure of Robin- 
son Crusoe. Tangier, indeed, has now become a resort for 
invalids, artists, and refugees from justice; but Tangier is 
not the capital of Morocco. The capital is Morocco City. 

As we all know, since 1580 the Spaniards own Ceuta, 
the rock and small town opposite to Gibraltar, and have 
a sort of penal settlement and a strong garrison at Melilla. 
Along the shores of the Atlantic live the Riff tribes — 
famous wreckers in the past, and now ferocious warriors. 

In 1893 the reigning Sultan, Muley el Hassan, undertook 
a campaign against certain unruly tribes living in the south- 
ern part of his dominions. He reached the oasis of Tafilet 
in October, but the difficulties of the march had been very 
great, and the Sultan suffered under them even more than 
his soldiers.^ From being a man of youthful appearance 
a few months before, he now showed marks of age; his 
beard had become streaked with gray, the fire in his eyes 
was gone, his head drooped; he looked like a man dis- 
heartened and weary. 

The return of the army to Morocco City was worse than 
its advance. The recrossing of the Atlas was terrible. 
Three weeks the army marched over mountain and desert, 
through wild tribes, where dangers were many, and where 
food was scarce, while, added to all the responsibilities 

1 The personal particulars of the death of Muley el Hassan, and the 
accession of the present Sultan, are taken from a narrative published in 
Blackwood's Magazine, September, 1894, by Walter B. Harris, 



286 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

and cares that weighed upon the Sultan as a general, he 
was harassed by news of the hostilities that had broken out 
between the Riff tribes and the Spaniards at Melilla. 

Muley Hassan ended his campaign a broken man. 
" Travel-stained and weary he rode his great white horse, 
with its mockery of green-and-gold trappings, while over a 
head that was the picture of suffering waved the imperial 
umbrella of crimson velvet. After him staggered into the 
city a horde of half-starved men and animals." 

No sooner had he arrived than a Spanish embassy, under 
General Campos, waited on him, to insist upon his paying 
indemnity, and punishing the Riff tribes, who had attacked 
the Spaniards. This forced the Sultan, ill as he was, to 
leave his southern capital, and undertake a long march to 
Rabat, thence to Fez, that he might punish the Rififians. 
He died upon his march, and entered Rabat a dead man. 

The Sultan of Morocco names his own successor, his 
choice being subject to the approval of his viziers and 
more powerful shereefs, some of whom claim a descent far 
more ancient and honorable than the reigning family. 

There were four members of Muley Hassan's family on 
whom the choice might have fallen; on either of his two 
brothers, Muley Ismain and Muley Omar; or on either of 
his two sons, Muley Mohammed, the eldest (son of a slave 
woman), or Muley Abdul Aziz, his young son by his Circas- 
sian wife, whom he himself had educated as his successor. 

" The mother of Abdul Aziz was a lady of great intelligence 
and remarkable ability, who, though no longer in her first 
youth, was able, to the day of his death, to obtain a most 
singular and no doubt beneficial influence over Muley el 
Hassan. Her foreign extraction and her education abroad, 
her general knowledge of the world, and her opportuni- 
ties for watching the court intrigues, rendered her of more 
service to the Sultan than any of his viziers. The affection 
he bestowed on her was also shared by her son Muley Abdul 
Aziz, who, with the tender anxiety of both an affectionate 
father and mother, was brought up in a far more satisfac- 



THE BARBARY STATES. 28/ 

tory manner than is generally the case with the sons of 
Moorish potentates. While his elder brothers were left to 
run wild, and to lead lives of cruelty and vice, Abdul Aziz was 
the constant companion of his parents, who, both intending 
that he should be one day Sultan of Morocco, lost no oppor- 
tunities of educating him to the best of their abilities to fill 
the post." 

The elder son of Muley Hassan, Muley Mohammed, was 
living as viceroy in Morocco City. A newspaper corre- 
spondent dubbed him ^' the one-eyed decapitater " ; but this 
telling epithet was not true in any particular. "Vicious 
and immoral he was to an extent that surpasses description, 
but beyond that his sins were no greater than those of the 
ordinary Moorish official." 

Muley Hassan had been in the habit of carrying on the 
government of his country through half a dozen viziers, 
who alone were able to gain the ear of their master. Among 
these viziers and advisers existed the most intense jealousy. 
But the one most favored by the Sultan was Sid Ahmed 
ben Moussa, son of a man who for many years had been in 
the service and the confidence of his father and himself. 
The Grand Vizier was Haj Amanti, whose brother also was 
one of the viziers, and bitterly as these men hated each 
other, the Sultan appeared to place equal confidence in both. 

Haj Amanti was by no means worthy of this favor. His 
cupidity was notorious. He robbed the Sultan ; he sold 
appointments ; and in the two years of his vizierate he 
had amassed a large fortune. 

The Sultan, about two weeks before his death, had taken 
a most tender leave of Abdul Aziz, whom he sent before 
him to Rabat, causing him to travel with all the pomp and 
paraphernalia of a sultan, thereby indicating him to his 
people as his successor. 

Muley Hassan died upon his march, June 6, 1894, Sid 
Ahmed alone of his viziers being present. He swore over 
the deathbed to support the succession of Abdul Aziz, and 
never to desert him while they both lived. 



288 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY, 

The Sultan died in a hostile country, and it was danger- 
ous to let either the army or the surrounding tribes know 
what had happened. A council of the viziers decided that 
the death should be kept secret, and the army was by forced 
marches hurried on to Rabat, bearing the dead body of 
the Sultan in his palanquin. 

When the procession reached Rabat the truth was told. 
It was imperative that the body should immediately be 
buried ; it was secretly carried out at night, and laid by a 
few soldiers in a mosque that contained the remains of the 
dead Sultan's ancestors. 

The army, before reaching Rabat, had discovered the 
truth, the greater part of the soldiers had disbanded; many 
small parties of men, attempting to get back to their own 
villages, were cut in pieces by the wild tribes that sur- 
rounded them. 

Muley Hassan had written letters concerning the succes- 
sion to his viziers, and a letter of advice to his young son. 

The next morning Muley Abdul Aziz was led forth, " the 
great crimson-and-gold umbrella waving over him, sur- 
rounded by his father's viziers and mounted on his fa- 
ther's white horse, and was proclaimed Sultan of Morocco. 
" Those who saw the spectacle, " says Mr. Harris, " described 
it to me. The boy's eyes were filled with tears, for his 
love for his father was intense, and report says that it was 
only by force he was induced to mount the horse and be 
proclaimed. On his return to the palace, the mosque in 
which his father had been buried the previous night was 
passed. Leaving the procession, Muley Abdul Aziz pro- 
ceeded alone to the door, and, weeping copiously, dis- 
mounted and entered to do his last homage to his father 
and his Sultan." 

There was great excitement in Tangier; a wholesale 
massacre of Europeans was dreaded. But the disaffected 
tribes around the city contented themselves with displac- 
ing an unpopular governor, each village electing a loeal 
sheikh to be responsible for the conduct of those under 



THE BARBAE Y STA TES. 289 

him. These sheikhs preserved quiet. It was the time of 
harvest. "The Sultan was dead," they said, "and his son 
had been proclaimed. God orders everything — but wheat 
must be gathered in." 

The cause of peace was also greatly indebted to the two 
brothers of Muley Hassan, both quiet men and much 
respected by the people. They at once gave in their adhe- 
sion to the new Sultan, their nephew. 

But while the boy Sultan was accepted by his subjects, 
the rivalries among his viziers portended great confusion. 
Sid Ahmed ben Moussa became, not unnaturally, the sole 
adviser of the new Sultan; Haj Amanti and his brother, 
who had both been Sid Ahmed's bitter enemies for some 
years, were dismissed, and soon after ignominiously impris- 
oned. The men who had cringed to Haj Amanti the day 
before, now outrageously insulted him as he was led away 
to prison. 

Muley Mohammed, the elder brother of the young 
Sultan, was also imprisoned, and recent reports speak of 
many executions. 

The other viziers were not displaced, but they are little 
consulted. The government seems now to be carried on 
by three persons, Sid Ahmed ben Moussa, the Sultan's 
mother, and an aunt who had assisted largely in his edu- 
cation. 

Let us hope that the reign of the Moorish Abdul Aziz 
may be more prosperous and less tragic than that of his 
namesake, the Sultan Abdul Aziz, at Constantinople. 

u 



CHAPTER XI. 

LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY. 

T is not generally known that, although the United States 
have never embarked in schemes of colonization, col- 
onies have been planted on the west coast of Africa by 
three of the states of the American Union: Mississippi, 
Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The colonies of Mississippi 
and Pennsylvania soon perished, but the colony of Mary- 
land, i.e. Maryland in Liberia, or, in other words, the col- 
ony of Cape Palmas, lived and flourished for twenty years 
as a colony of the parent state; afterwards, for a brief 
period, it was an independent republic; and it is now an 
integral part of the republic of Liberia. 

The world's civilization began in Africa, and thither the 
cycle of time seems to be reconducting it. From the 
twelfth century almost to our own time the world in general 
knew little more of the interior of Africa than we know of 
the Antarctic continent, but on its northern border had flour- 
ished philosophers, scientists, and arithmeticians among 
the Saracens, and afterwards all light in Africa faded away. 

The first notion of missionary effort on the west coast of 
Africa came from old Dr. Samuel Hopkins of Newport, 
Rhode Island, — the good man whose love-story has been 
told by Mrs. Stowe in "The Minister's Wooing." He 
talked the matter over with a clerical friend, the Rev. Ezra 
Stiles, and proposed to educate two colored youths as 
missionaries. But Dr. Stiles thought that two lonely mis- 
sionaries upon a heathen coast would not succeed; and 
that a Christian colony had better be planted on the soil 
of West Africa, which would teach the natives something 

290 



LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY. 29 1 

of agriculture, trading, and mechanics, besides infusing 
some notions of the arts and decencies of civilization. 

A very little had been done in furtherance of this project 
when our Revolutionary War broke out, and interest in the 
affairs of the Gold Coast was, for a time, suspended; but 
when the government of the United States had been estab- 
lished. Dr. Hopkins, whose interest in the cause and 
knowledge of the coast was stimulated by the fact that in 
Newport the slave-trade was especially active, took the 
matter up once more. A party was formed to migrate and 
colonize on the west coast of Africa; but our great-grand- 
fathers would not raise money for the object, — they could 
not "see the good of it," — and the project failed. 

This was in 1787. One hundred years later Stanley was 
traversing the Dark Continent; missionaries and explorers 
were scattered all over Central Africa; and the whole coast 
line on the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the Indian 
Ocean was, with the exception of Morocco, Tripoli, and 
one little repuolic, under the direct rule, or the "protec- 
tion," of some European power. 

In the same year, 1787, there went out an English colony 
to Africa under a young man named Granville Sharpe, who 
founded the settlement of Sierra Leone. Dr. Hopkins 
died in 1803. He had sown good seed; he had tended it 
and watered it; but he did not live to see its increase, 
though he died a very old man. In 1 8 1 5 Captain Paul Cuffee, 
a colored man of New Bedford, took out, in his own ship, 
thirty emigrants to Africa and settled them at Sierra Leone. 
In 1826 two of Dr. Hopkins's colored disciples, the 
"two hopeful young men" whom he had educated to be 
missionaries, now aged seventy-five and seventy, went out 
to Africa, hoping to promote their beloved pastor's fervent 
wishes by inducing younger men to follow their example. 

But before this, in 1800, Virginia had made some move- 
ment towards colonization. Her idea, as at first started, 
was to provide a place of transportation for criminal or 
dangerous negroes. Nothing, however, was done. 



292 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

Meantime two great movements of another kind grew 
out of the agitation of the subjects of colonization and 
missionary work in Africa, namely, the establishment of 
the American Board of Missions and the American Bible 
Society. These originated from a little association of 
undergraduates at Williams College, Massachusetts, whose 
interest had been excited in the African colonization 
scheme. "Tall oaks from little acorns grow." 

The leader of this band of Christian brothers was named 
Samuel J. Mills, and he adhered through life to the object 
he had taken up in the days when he was an undergrad- 
uate. He studied the negroes, their needs and their capac- 
ities, and when a project was set on foot to colonize them 
in the vast wilderness then lying between the Great Lakes 
and the Ohio, he said: "Whether any of us live to see 
it or not, the time will come when white men will want 
all that region, and will have it, and our colony would be 
overwhelmed." 

During this time the idea of colonizing Africa with 
American colored people seems to have been in the air. 
Various persons were thinking on the subject; and in 
December, 18 16, a meeting was called in Washington 
mainly by the personal exertions of Dr. Finley. Henry 
Clay presided; John Randolph spoke, and Robert Wright 
of Maryland. 

A week later a colonization society was organized. 
Judge Bushrod Washington was its president, and among 
its twelve vice-presidents were some of the most distin- 
guished men in Washington. Henry Clay, General Mercer, 
Bishop Meade, and Francis S. Keys were all very active in 
promoting it. 

In November, 181 7, Mr. Mills and Mr. Burgess went out 
to the west coast of Africa to choose a suitable situation 
for the proposed colony. 

That wonderfully little was known in the year 181 7 about 
African geography I have told in a former chapter. In the 
seventeenth century the Portuguese had picked up a good 



LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY. 293 

deal of information, principally from traders and mission- 
aries, and old maps of two hundred years ago are covered 
over thickly with queer names, great rivers, towns, lakes, 
and kingdoms, with well-defined boundaries,^ laid down 
incorrectly, for the most part, but showing some imperfect 
true ideas concerning the interior of the country. By 181 7 
geographers had discarded this imperfect knowledge, and 
marked all the interior of the Dark Continent "unknown" 
and "desert"; lakeless and riverless, without nations or 
towns. When I learned geography at my mother's knee, I 
was taught that the Niger was a marvellous river, having no 
outlet into any other river, lake, or sea; that the Congo 
was a small river (it looked no longer than the Thames 
upon my map), and that it flowed into the Atlantic near 
the Portuguese settlement of Loanda. 

Sierra Leone had received its first emigrants in 1787, 
and subsequently all the American slaves captured by 
Great Britain in the war of 181 2 were transported there. 
All negroes, also, who were captured on board slavers were 
sent to Sierra Leone. There, too, were what remained of 
Captain Cuffee's Newport blacks, thirty in number, who had 
gone out in 1815, with their own pastor, to form a church 
there. ^ 

Mr. Mills and Mr. Burgess, the committee sent out by 
the Colonization Society, went first to England. The Duke 
of Gloucester (lately married to his cousin, Princess Mary) 
was very favorable to them; so was Mr. Wilberforce; but 
when they reached Sierra Leone they found the colonial 
authorities by no means pleased with their mission; they 
did not fancy an American state planted on their southern 

i This is the case on an old globe of 1762 that I possess. Australia 
was as little known then as Africa. There is no water between Van 
Diemen's Land and the Austrahan Continent. — E. W. L. 

2 The colored people of old Newport, before the days of hotels and 
lavish expenditure, were an exceptionally respectable race. The greater 
part of them were old retainers of old Rhode Island families, and in 
this respect Newport, when I first lived there, in 1848, was more like a 
Southern than a New England city. — E. W. L. 



^94 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

frontier. The only cordial reception the commissioners 
met with was from Captain Cuffee's band of emigrants, 
whose chief man, John Kizell, was eager to assist them. 
But his advice proved disastrous. They had not money to 
enable them to explore far along the coast, and so fixed on 
the most southern point they reached, viz. Sherboro' Island, 
which they proposed to recommend for the settlement of 
the colony. Mr. Mills died of consumption on the voyage 
home. His name and that of Mr. Burgess are associated 
in the name of the second city of Liberia, i.e. Millsburg. 

President Monroe favored the Colonization Society, and 
by his means a number of African negroes, who had been 
imported into the Southern States by slave-dealers, and 
taken out of their hands by the government of the United 
States, were given into the care of the society, with funds 
for their support and transportation. 

On board the Elizabeth, the Mayflower of Liberia, eighty- 
eight emigrants left New York, early in 1820, for the new 
colony. First and last, the number of recaptured Africans 
committed by the United States to the keeping of the col- 
ony has been five thousand seven hundred and twenty-two. 

The Sherboro' Island location proved unhealthy in the 
extreme. Captain Stockton and Dr. Ayres, the only 
white men among the colonists, were finally sent down the 
coast to find a better place for a settlement. They saw, 
and succeeded in purchasing, a bold bluff, called Cape 
Mesurado, and in April, 1822, the colonists removed 
there. But even then there was still talk of abandoning 
the enterprise; and this might have been done but for the 
bravery and firmness of Elijah Johnson, one of the immi- 
grants, who exclaimed, at a meeting held to consider the 
proposition : " No ! I have been two years searching for a 
home in Africa. I have found it. I shall stay here." His 
companions, for the most part, threw in their lot with 
Johnson, and he was appointed the society's sole agent in 
Africa. 

But, left to themselves, the colonists found dangers aris- 



LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY. 295 

ing from the hostility of the natives, from the jealousy of 
the British authorities at Sierra Leone, and from disputes 
among themselves, consequent on the want of a code of 
laws and a settled government. 

At last, August 9, 1822, a ship arrived containing a new 
white agent, Mr. Ashmun. He has been the historian of 
Liberia, but writing, not as a maker of history so much as 
a collector of subscriptions, his pictures are decidedly 
devoid of shade. 

Shortly after Mr. Ashmun' s arrival, the settlers — thirty- 
six fighting men in all — repulsed eight hundred natives; 
and on being a second time attacked, completely routed 
them. The troubles incident to the loose nature of the 
government of the colony had been led by a very able col- 
ored man, Lot Carey; "a Cromwell, may be," said one 
who knew him well, " but the ablest of his race ever sent 
to Africa." 

The question had arisen, to whom did the new settle- 
ment belong? To the men who paid the native kings for 
it, or to the society? If to the former, why should they 
abdicate self-government in favor of the dictation of a 
society in America? 

These troubles grew so complicated that Ashmun gave up 
in despair and retired to the Cape de Verde Islands. There 
he found a United States war vessel, having on board Ralph 
Randolph Gurley, a young colored man, sent out to com- 
pose the difficulties. By Gurley' s good sense, and the wis- 
dom of his instructions, all disputes were adjusted, and a 
plan for the colonial government of Liberia was adopted 
by its people. 

On Cape Mount a flourishing little town was now rising. 
In consequence of a suggestion from Mr. John H. B. Lat- 
robe, of Maryland, then secretary of the Colonization Soci- 
ety, and subsequently its president, the pretty name of 
Monrovia was given to it, out of compliment to the colony's 
first influential patron, President Monroe. The plan of the 
city was, however, far too magnificent for the wants of its 



296 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

inhabitants, or even for their power of keeping it in 
order. 

The town, as it appeared in 183 1, is thus described by 
Dr. James Hall in a very interesting paper in the "African 
Repository," October, 1885: — 

" On my way out I had made myself acquainted with Mr. 
Ashmun's town on paper, with its streets and public buildings, 
as when he left it three years previously ; — perhaps the actual 
town looked better then, — doubtless it did to hhn, — better than 
the original forest, but Monrovia could not be called a town, 
village, or city, the term settlement only being applicable. 
There were streets, houses, shops, and people, but to say the 
least, not well arranged. The streets had the appearance of a 
young forest of second growth. It should be borne in mind that 
there were no carriages, or beasts of pleasure or of burthen, nor 
likely to be on this rocky cape, and yet the main streets, east and 
west, from a half to a mile in length, were from sixty to one hun- 
dred feet wide, and nothing but zigzag footpaths traversing them 
from side to side, or from house to house. I believe the cross 
streets were of less width. I judge so from recollections of one 
near the Government House, the only one that could be desig- 
nated a street, the connection elsewhere being by footpaths, 
obliquing across the vacant lots, possibly within the bounds of 
the streets laid out on paper. Along all these so-called streets 
the footpaths were then bordered by a thick growth of sedge 
grass and shrubs from one to two feet high, rendering it very 
difficult — almost impossible — for females to pass along it in 
the early morning or in the rainy season without wet garments. 
I was often forced to ride cross-legged, tailor-fashion, on my 
donkey, from the same cause. In addition to this nuisance were 
the guava and other fruit trees, shedding water and hiding the 
houses from view. From the side path a building line of the 
street houses on the opposite side only was visible, the inevitable 
guava trees obstructing all views of the houses on the same side. 
The condition of the houses and shops was more creditable than 
that of the streets, the public buildings perhaps excepted. 
There were in 1832 three very plainly built barn-like churches, 
two Baptist and one Methodist. The Court House was a little 
shop with a porch to dignify it. The Government Agency 
House, built at the expense of the United States, was mucR 
better. The dwellings of the colonists were generally of one 
story, elevated or based on a rude stone underpinning, often of 
insufficient height fo'" a storeroom. Even those of the poorest 




DR. JAMES HALL. 



LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY. 297 

people were shut in by weather-boarding, and the roof covered 
with shingles ; but at that time they were mostly of poor mate- 
rial, — soft wood, subject to early decay, if not destroyed sooner by 
the white ants. Three only were of two stories and good finish, 
one of them being of stone. There was, when I arrived, but one 
good warehouse or store in the town, but two years later the 
frontage on the river was surveyed, divided into suitable lots for 
wharves and warehouses, and sold to merchants. Several large 
buildings were soon erected, materially improving the appearance 
and the commercial facilities of the town ; but the blunder com- 
mitted in laying out the streets is irremediable. The entire 
population and the native servants, who do all such work, could 
not have kept the broad avenues in a decent shape for travel." 

And now, having spoken of Dr. Hall, I must be per- 
mitted to enliven this paper by a few personal reminiscences 
that he published a few years since in some papers which 
he contributed to the " African Repository." I supplement 
them by a few anecdotes from the pen of Mr. John H. B. 
Latrobe \ well knowing, however, that had Dr. Hall been 
living, he would have deprecated my saying anything which 
would tend to place him in the light of a hero ; — a good, 
useful, very remarkable man. 

This is how he came first to visit Liberia, that land with 
which his life "was blended in warp and woof"; which he 
aided by thirty years of active service, and by half a century 
of interest and watchful care. 

"The summer of 1831," he says, "found me a patient in a 
Baltimore hospital, laboring under a severe and painful affection 
of the knee joint and general debility of the system, induced by 
arduous professional labor two years previous, by which I was 
forced to abandon my profession and my New England home. 
The loss of my wife, and my having two orphaned children of 
tender age, if not actually aggravating my complaints, deprived 
me for a time, at least, of that vigorous mental energy so essen- 
tial an adjuvant in restoring health or in endurance of suffer- 
ing. I had spent two seasons in the West Indies, the first in 
Cuba, the second in Hayti, with some temporary benefit, espe- 
cially in the voyaging, to my general health, but in no way reliev- 
ing the agony of the limb affected. 

"On arriving in Baltimore in the summer of 1831 I placed 
myself in the hands of three distinguished medical professors. 



298 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

It was decided I had better take a room in the Infirmary, which 
I did. ... At the end of five months little health or vigor of 
mind remained, barely enough to enable me to rebel and aban- 
don further medical aid. ... As in all hopeless cases, or cases 
so viewed by others, I still had hope that if I could take a long 
sea voyage, with absolute rest for my limb, that with the move- 
ment of the vessel and free air I might recover. To that end 
I opened communication with friends for securing a passage to 
the East Indies or China. While waiting a response the first 
providence, if it be so considered, comes in. The papers con- 
tained an address by Dr. Eli Ayres, one of the many agents 
in founding Liberia, to the colored people of Baltimore, contain- 
ing notice of a vessel being about to set sail for that colony. I 
lost no time in making application for a passage, little hope as 
I then had of benefiting any but myself. It was granted, and 
orders given to Dr. Ayres to call on me and make arrange- 
ments therefor, which he soon did, accompanied by that friend 
of Liberia, Moses Shepherd. Little was said to or before me of 
my condition, but their look of astonishment at my presumption 
was not encouraging. It was clear that I did not see myself as 
others saw me, but I had determined on the voyage and was 
bent on a resurgam. Had I then known what one of my medi- 
cal attendants afterwards communicated to me, I fear I should 
have committed the breach of one commandment at least. Said 
one, ^ He is not fit to be moved. He will not reach the vessel.' 
A second thought he would, but not the coast ; a third voted 
him food for the African fever." 

The time was vi^ell into the autumn, and the weather clear 
and cold, but the doctor, with his indomitable courage, took 
advantage of a warm and pleasant day to go down to Fell's 
Point and get a view of the vessel. It was not until he 
saw himself in a glass that he was overpowered for one 
moment by a sense of the hopelessness of his condition. 
He was literally a living skeleton. At Fell's Point he was 
weighed, and with boots and heavy clothes turned the scale 
at 91 pounds. But at Fell's Point, in a little public house 
called the Pilot's Tavern, he received the first sensible proof 
that he had a prospect of recovery. The salt air and the 
tender care of Mrs. Watson, the landlady, revived him in- 
expressibly. And fifty-five years afterwards he told me that 
he recalled those hours in her house with grateful memory. 



LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY. 299 

The Orion sailed, after a long delay. The doctor, 
partially restored to life, was carried on board, not at all to 
the satisfaction of the captain, who, hailed by a shipmate 
with the remark, "Your passenger won't live to reach the 
Capes ! " replied, " I hope to the devil he won't. I don't 
want him on board." 

But the fresh air in Hampton Roads carried on the 
renovation already begun by the kind ministrations of Mrs. 
Watson. 

There had been a lively clipper schooner in port at 
Baltimore bound also for Africa. The doctor, in his old 
tub the Orion, felt annoyed at his choice every time he 
looked at her, and as they saw her bowling past them with 
all sails set when six days out, while the cautious captain 
of the Orion was taking in sail, the doctor, with an invalid's 
impatience, told the captain he was doing the society in- 
justice by his slow sailing, as his charter was by the month. 
His answer was: "Know nothing — fear nothing," and 
he proceeded to take in more sail. Dr. Hall watched the 
schooner till she was hull down in the offing, and his were 
the last eyes that rested on her. That night, under her 
press of canvas, she went down in a gale. 

At last the Orion sighted Grand Cape Mount, some 
sixty miles to the windward of Monrovia. Grand Cape 
Mount is the only elevation noticeable from the sea from 
Sierra Leone to Monrovia, and from Monrovia to Cape 
Palmas. " It is," said Dr. Hall, " the most beautiful, symmet- 
rical, natural pyramid conceivable, without shoulder, rock, 
slide, or other break in its entire outUne, covered with dense 
forest to its very summit ; an elevation over a thousand 
feet high." 

At daylight they lay anchored in the harbor of Monrovia 
in company with two Philadelphia traders. The crews of 
these vessels were for the most part down with African 
fever, and ashore, under the charge of the physician of the 
colony. How Dr. Hall in his professional capacity went 
on board one of these brigs ; what he did, and the piteous 



300 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

sight he saw there, — a poor sick cabin-boy all sores, being 
eaten up alive by cockroaches, — need not here be told. 

"My first impressions, "he said, "while lying in the road- 
stead were far from favorable." He looked for the town, 
but it was hidden in trees and bushes. " The only houses 
visible were the thatched haycock cottages of the native 
fishermen, near the beach, with their black pickaninnies 
rolling in the sun and sand." 

The governor, Dr. Mechlin, received Dr. Hall very 
kindly, and invited him to stay in the Government 
House. There commenced Dr. Hall's friendship with 
Mr. Russwurm, then the secretary of the governor, and 
afterwards, for fifteen years, governor of Maryland's own 
colony in Liberia. His father had been an American mer- 
chant in the West Indies, his mother was an African. He 
had graduated A.M. at Bowdoin College, in New England, 
where Dr. Hall also had taken his medical diploma, so 
that they had many friends in common; and now Dr. 
Hall began to feel how much he had gained in his long, 
tedious voyage, and found that in weight he had won a 
pound a day. 

Most amusingly he tells how, unable to bear the jolting 
of a sort of native palanquin, and unwilling to ride pick- 
a-back on a Krooman, the solitary survivor of five imported 
donkeys was procured for him. He says he seemed to him- 
self like Don Quixote mounted on Sancho's Dapple. 

The natives, as man and donkey threaded the weedy 
Monrovian streets, designated the doctor with his crutches 
as "the man with two sticks on him bullock"; but years 
after, at Cape Palmas, having occasion to visit a native 
king in his own quarters, he set out on his good Jack, at- 
tended by two colonists and Yellow Will, his headman. 
On his nearing a large native town, all the population 
turned out, wildly shouting and gesticulating. Their 
behavior was so odd, and laughter is so contagious, that 
the doctor roared too. Then they became so frantic that 
Jack was terrified and refused to move. His master turned 



LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY. 30I 

to Yellow Will for an explanation; but Yellow Will (ordi- 
narily a glum and stolid personage) was lying, convulsed 
with laughter, on the sand of the shore. After some delay 
and much scolding he was brought to order. "You wan' 
know what make dem peoples act so?" "Yes; that's exactly 
what I do want to know," said the ambassador. "I m.o' 
'fraid tell you — but it be dis. All dem peoples tink you 
an' donkey be one, — one Gubnoo. Dey laugh so, 'cos one 
face look so he be sorry, — go cry; — an' t'other face laugh, 
— all same man! " 

"Is it possible," adds the doctor, "that the Centaurs in 
Grecian mythology had a like origin? Unexplained, would 
not these five hundred — yes ! one thousand — people in 
Half-Cavalla have died in the belief, and have transmitted 
it to their descendants, that the American governor of Cape 
Palmas had two heads, six legs, and, as the nursery riddle 
runs, four down-standers, two down-hangers, and a whisk- 
about?" 

Again, when he dismounted and removed the housing, 
saddle and bridle, another shout of astonishment went up. 
"They are taking the Gubnoo all apart, apart! " was the cry 
of the bystanders. 

But we must hasten on to Dr. Hall's connection with 
Cape Palmas, where, indeed, this incident occurred. 

France is now aggressive in her intercourse with Liberia; 
but in 1846 England was the little settlement's most power- 
ful neighbor. Some trading difficulties arose, in conse- 
quence of which England appealed to the government at 
Washington, to know if Liberia was subject to American 
jurisdiction, — was, in fact, an American colony? 

The government at Washington replied that it was not 
the policy of the United States to colonize; that Liberia 
was under the jurisdiction of an American society. The 
British government responded that it could not treat with a 
society, and the situation became so embarrassing and 
so dangerous to the colony that the Liberians, who had 
already their own legislature, requested the consent of their 



302 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

American rulers to choose a flag,^ elect a president, agree 
upon a constitution, and declare themselves an independent 
republic. 

They obtained their independence, and have ever since 
governed themselves. Their first two presidents. President 
Roberts and President Benson, were exceptionally good men. 
Several letters, written by President Roberts, in 1850, to 
Commodore Latimer, when in command of a small United 
States squadron on the west coast, are in my possession. 
They are excellent letters, written, not in the style and 
handwriting of a half-educated man, but like the letters of a 
gentleman. One related to a request made by Commodore 
Latimer to be allowed to land some stores on Sunday. The 
President replied that such work would be contrary to law 
and contrary to the feelings of the people, but that every 
facility he could give should be at the command of the 
American commodore by sunrise on Monday morning. 

When United States officers were in port, the President 
and chief merchants entertained them handsomely. The 
only thing peculiar about their dinners was, that canned 
vegetables and imported fruits were considered the correct 
things to be served to foreign guests, to the exclusion of 
delicious tropical vegetables and fruits, which were dis- 
carded as too common. Unhappily, the climate is unfa- 
vorable to the curing of bacon or to the growth of cabbages. 
At one time (1854) I received a number of letters from 
Liberians, and all, though praising the new land in other 
respects, bemoaned its lack of pigs and cabbages. 

The subsequent history of Liberia, after it became an 
independent state, has been one of slow but gradual im- 
provement. It has had ten presidents,^ and, although the 
Liberians, being an imitative people, have wasted their 

1 Like that of the United States, except that a white cross takes the 
place of the thirteen stars. 

2 Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Stephen Allen Benson, Daniel Dashiel 
Warner, James Spriggs Payne, Edward James Roye, Joseph Jenkins 
Roberts, James Spriggs Payne, Anthony Williams Gardner, Hilary 
Richard Wright Johnson, Joseph James Cheeseman. 



LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY. 303 

energies too often in political strife, it has certainly "gone 
ahead " to a degree quite unparalleled in other west coast 
settlements. Liberia is rather proud of her superior standing 
to the colony of Sierra Leone, which was founded in 1787, 
and on which the British government has expended, prob- 
ably, more than thirty millions of dollars. It is to be hoped 
Sierra Leone has improved greatly in the last twenty years, 
but even now it is very far behind Liberia, though it has 
had the advantages of paternal care from the British govern- 
ment, and thirty years the start of her. In 1873 Stanley, 
on his way to join Sir Garnet Wolseley's Coomassie cam- 
paign, speaks of Sierra Leone most unfavorably. "After 
a hundred years of occupation, the English are building a 
wharf ! After a hundred years of occupation the Episcopal 
Church is half constructed, and I should fear to say how 
much precious money has been spent on the rickety edifice. 
After a hundred years of occupation the English mission- 
aries have not been able to inculcate in the negroes' mind 
that it is sinful to lie, to steal, and to be lazy." 

However, when Stanley wrote this he was not the staid, 
sober-minded Stanley of the Congo and the African forest, 
but the irresponsible reporter for a newspaper. 

What all Africa needs and is crying out for is the immigra- 
tion of superior men from foreign countries, and, I repeat, 
why France should so much desire extension of colonial ter- 
ritory when she has not Frenchmen enough for her own 
use, is a problem as difficult to solve as why Italy, under 
straitened circumstances, should wish to expend large sums 
on quarrels with Abyssinia. 

The wisdom of Lord Bacon is quite as applicable to 
territorial extension in the nineteenth as in the sixteenth 
century. 

"It is a Shameful and Unblessed Thing," he says, "to 
take the Scume of People to be the People with whom you 
plant: and not only so, but it spoileth the Plantation; for 
they will ever live like Rogues, and not fall to Work, but 
be lazie and do Mischief, and spend Victuals, and be 



304 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

quickly wearie, and then certifie over to their Country to 
the discredit of the Plantation." 

It is the climate which makes it hard to find superior 
men willing to go out and foster colonies in Western Africa; 
but the problem of how to keep white men in health has 
been, in a great measure, solved recently by the Congo 
State, in its management of two hundred and fifty railroad 
laborers. And Liberia, which offers good education to 
those among her own people who are willing to profit by it, 
seems to be raising up here and there men of energy and 
common sense. Still it might have been better for her had 
she continued longer under colonial management, and not 
adopted prematurely the "blessings of universal suffrage," 
and its attendant weakness and intrigues. 

Liberia is not by any means inhabited solely by immi- 
grants. Its territory includes within its limits important 
African tribes, the Veys, the Mandingoes, etc., among 
whom the missionaries have sometimes found more satis- 
factory disciples than the common run of emigrants from 
the United States. At first there was not unfrequently a 
tendency in these last to relapse into that savage state from 
which they had been evolved during their trans-Atlantic 
slavery; but, as time goes on, and the civilized element 
grows stronger, this is no longer the case. The upper class 
of Liberians have done, and are doing, their country great 
credit in education, commerce, agricultural enterprise, 
missionary work, and even as philologists and explorers. 

Having thus sketched Liberia, with which Marylanders 
had no more to do than other subscribers to the Coloniza- 
tion Society, except, indeed, that her leading men took 
prominent parts in that association, we will turn to Mary- 
land in Liberia — Maryland's own colony. The first ap- 
propriation made by any state for colonization purposes, 
was made by Maryland, and in the session of the Maryland 
Legislature in 1 831-183 2 several acts were passed especially 
favoring African colonization. First, the Maryland State 
Colonization Society was chartered, independent of the 



LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY. 305 

American Colonization Society. Secondly, a sum of two 
hundred thousand dollars was voted to be expended on 
colonization by a state board of managers, in connection 
with the Maryland Colonization Society. 

This action partly owed its origin to the excitement pro- 
duced by a rising of negroes under Nat Turner in 1831, 
and what is called the Southampton massacre in Virginia. 
At the same date the Virginia legislature came within a few 
votes of passing an act for the gradual extinction of slavery. 

The gentleman to whose personal exertions the largest 
share of praise is due in this work was Mr. John H. B. 
Latrobe. Educated at West Point, he was expected to gain 
the highest honors, when the death of his father (the archi- 
tect of the first capitoi at Washington) made him feel it 
his duty to give up his prospect of distinction in a military 
life, and to return home to take care of his mother and her 
younger children. He died an old man, rich in civic 
honors, but never could he think, without a pang, of that 
act of renunciation. How he struggled in the fields of law 
and literature this is not the place to tell, but from the days 
when he renounced army life he became the most earnest 
worker in the colonization cause in Maryland. His inter- 
est in it had been excited when he studied law in the law 
ofifice of General Harper, and of all the enterprises of the 
Maryland State Colonization Society, he became the active, 
if not the nominal head. 

In the autumn of 1832 that society fitted out its own 
emigrant vessel, the Lafayette; put on board of her one hun- 
dred and forty-six Maryland emigrants and sent them to 
Liberia. On reaching Monrovia, it became apparent that 
the immigrants of two independent societies could not be 
harmoniously settled on the same spot, and the Maryland 
State Colonization Society, on receiving reports from the 
emigrants and the captain of the Lafayette, resolved to 
make a new and independent settlement; to found, in fact, 
Maryland's own colony outside the limits of Liberia. Some 
years earlier Mr. Latrobe had pointed out that Cape Pal- 



306 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

mas, standing, as it does, at an angle of the great continent, 
where the coast line changes from southeast to east, leading 
to the Gold Coast and the outlets of the great river Niger, 
was the best place for a colony. 

While the subject was under discussion there arrived a 
letter from Dr. Hall, dated Monrovia, in which he 
pointed out to his old Baltimore friend, Dr. Ayres, the 
advantageous position of Cape Palmas for any future enter- 
prise in colonization. This letter decided the question. 
Cape Palmas was adopted by the Maryland State Coloniza- 
tion Society; and as the society was connected only with 
the state, the colony had nothing to do with the Federal 
government. 

Just as this resolution was taken. Dr. Hall returned to 
Baltimore, invalided from malaria, after two years' unceas- 
ing service as a physician in Liberia. He had navigated 
the Liberian rivers; he knew the coast, the natives, and 
the country; he could advise in everything as to the outfit; 
and lastly, having recovered some measure of health dur- 
ing his sea voyage, he proved ready to devote himself to the 
cause of the new colony by going out as its first governor. 

" His early training, before and while acquiring his pro^ 
fession" (the doctor is speaking of himself), " had made him 
familiar with business, and in Africa he had acquired knowl- 
edge most valuable and important for the position. He 
was acclimated; he had attended scarcely less than a 
thousand patients with the African fever; he was familiar 
with the African trade, with the peculiarities and habits of 
the natives, well acquainted with the colonists, and, more 
than all, had visited the various towns on the entire coast 
line, including the point proposed for settlement." 

Thus far the doctor's modesty permitted him to speak; 
he does not add that he was peculiarly fitted for the work 
by his zeal, his bravery, his power of controlling his subor- 
dinates, and his strict integrity, which made all men (even 
savages) feel certain they could trust him. Unlike many 
men put in authority, he was cordially backed and supported 



LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY. 307 

by the society that confided its work to him, and which 
was stimulated to liberality by Mr. Latrobe. 

A forlorn little brig, the Ann, little bigger than a Ches- 
apeake Bay schooner, but the best craft that could be had, 
was chartered to take out the new governor. She carried 
also three missionaries, and another ordained minister, 
the Rev. John Hersey, who was to act as assistant to the 
governor. "He was a man," said Dr. Hall, "not more 
distinguished for his piety than his eccentricities; a veri- 
table John the Baptist in food and clothing." 

The details of the voyage, such as how Hersey's prayers 
for a fair wind were answered by a roaring nor'-wester, 
which drove the sluggish Ami within six days' sail of the 
coast, and then left her in the doldrums ; of the impatience 
of the governor, who wanted to get his people housed before 
the rainy season; how he took to a boat, and made sail to 
the eastward; how he made land off Sherboro' Island, and 
finally landed at Monrovia, I have not space to tell ; but by 
the time the laggard Ann crawled into the harbor, the ener- 
getic governor had recruited thirty able-bodied and accli- 
mated volunteers. As soon as the brig came in they were 
embarked and sent down the coast to the new colony, still 
under the government of its native king. 

"Cape Palmas," says Mr. Latrobe, "is a promontory, 
which, approached from the northwest, presents the appear- 
ance of three slightly marked eminences, that which is 
furthest from the sea being separated by a steep declivity 
from a level plain, beyond which the land rises gradually 
towards the interior. On this eminence, and looking down 
upon this plain, was the native town, the residence of King 
Freeman. A river, first called the Hoffman, empties into 
the sea north of the Cape, and afforded a landing-place 
near the plain. There was also an available landing-place 
where the river washed the base of the Cape itself." 

The first thing to be done was to choose a site for the 
new settlement. Should it be along the shore, or on Cape 
Palmas itself? Dr. Hall chose the latter. A settlement 



308 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

on the plain, he thought, might place the colonists at the 
mercy of natives, while on the Cape he would plant his 
battery of three tiny guns and command the native village. 

The first step was to hold a palaver. A palaver by no 
means indicates a rude, disorderly assembly; so long as evil 
passions are not roused, it is conducted with great dignity. 
After two days' negotiation, and an utter refusal on Dr. 
Hall's part to treat on a basis of rum, the land needed by 
the settlers was purchased with merchandise worth about 
one thousand dollars. The moment the agreement was 
signed stores were landed from the Ann, and she was sent 
back to bring more emigrants from Monrovia. 

The expert thieving of King Freeman's men and women 
at first gave some trouble. 

"However," says Mr. Latrobe, "while thefts were com- 
mitted by the natives, a colonist was found one day with 
his pockets filled with cassava, stolen from the natives; 
when the king, who had been forced to pay for the depre- 
dations committed by his subjects, not unnaturally called 
upon the *Gubnoo' to apply to himself the same law. 
'When Africa man steal from America man,' said King 
Freeman, 'I pay. If America man steal from Africa man, 
you pay.' 'But,' replied Dr. Hall, 'I have a law to 
catch thief. You make the same law, you no pay ! ' " 

The result was, that the king forthwith set up two native 
justices and two constables, and soon after sent to America 
as "his mouth" one of his headmen, called Simleh Balla, 
to get law, as he said, "after America fash." The simple 
code was produced, every item in it being discussed between 
Simleh and Mr. Latrobe. Simleh was a handsome man 
and an intelligent one. More than once he posed his white 
superiors on points of speculative theology, "whereupon," 
says Mr. Latrobe, " the discussion of the code was resumed, 
and the theological question remained unanswered." 

Four months after the purchase the energetic governor 
had got his people housed. One of the fundamental laws 
of the colony was the non-introduction of any kind of 



LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY. 309 

spirits. To the strict enforcement of this law, Dr. 
Hall attributed the general peace and good feeling that 
prevailed between the colonists and the natives. A war- 
cloud, however, rose within a few months of the arrival of 
the colonists, but was dispersed by the firmness of Dr. 
Hall. 

King Freeman, after the manner of African kings, who 
are strict protectionists, undertook to prescribe that rice 
might be purchased only from his own people. The col- 
onists were sending a boat up the river to procure supplies 
from a more inland village. Dr. Hall, on hearing that 
King Freeman meant to stop this boat, mounted his donkey, 
visited the monarch, and, after explaining to him the ne- 
cessity of bringing rice from Rocktown to feed his people, 
added that he had but one word to say : that if King Free- 
man and his subjects persisted in their course, he would 
never again meet them to talk over palaver ; and that if 
they attempted by force to stop any trade coming to the 
settlement, or interrupted any trade goods sent for rice, 
that war would then begin; that the settlers and their gov- 
ernor were as willing to meet death one way as another, and 
that war would not end while one American was left alive 
on the Cape, or till their guns had destroyed everything 
within gunshot of their fort. 

The rice- boat was made ready to start the next morning 
for Rocktown, but at dawn Dr. Hall received a mes- 
sage from the king and headmen, to the effect that they 
were convinced of their error and were sorry for the 
trouble they had given. 

"When it is stated," says Mr. Latrobe, "that from the 
day when he left America Dr. Hall was an invalid; that 
he was at no time able to go about, except when aided 
by crutches; that his life at Cape Palmas was rarely 
that of a person in even ordinary health; and that the 
whole fighting force of the colony did not exceed thirty 
fighting men, we are better able to appreciate the bravery, 
the cool judgment, and the indomitable energy that gave 



3IO EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

him ascendency with the natives, and secured the colony's 
success." 

Here is another anecdote that connects itself with those 
times, reported, as in duty bound, by Dr. Hall to the 
society, but given to the public by Mr. Latrobe; though 
in private I have heard the same story from the doctor 
himself. Mr. Latrobe says : — 

" Dr. Hall writes : ^ They have a custom here (like our fore- 
fathers in Salem) of attributing all the great calamities of life to 
witchcraft, particularly all sudden deaths of the middle-aged and 
active. In such cases the gree-gree man, doctor or Grand Devil, 
is consulted, and he points out the witch offending, who is com- 
pelled to drink large quantities of a decoction of a poisonous tree 
called sassa-wood. Should he survive he is deemed innocent. 
Quite a number have been subjected to this ordeal since our 
settlement, who have died in excruciating agony. One of the 
headmen who had uniformly befriended the colony was arraigned, 
and found guilty of bewitching sundry members of the family of 
one of his rivals, and was doomed to the trial. He had also 
taken his first potion before I was informed of it. It had a 
severe effect on the poor fellow, though he was quite comfortable 
by night. But the head devil had declared that he must take it 
again on the morrow. Being informed of this I went down early 
in the morning, called a palaver, and endeavored to have the 
man released. But all gifts, entreaties, reasoning, and threaten- 
ing were in vain. There seemed to be a deep grudge, which 
nothing but his death could appease. On returning home I was 
informed there was an ancient custom, something like this : If a 
man was compelled to drink sassa-wood, any friend of superior 
worth and standing could clear him by taking him by the hand 
when the potion was about to be administered, and taking upon 
himself the responsibility, becoming liable either to occupy his 
place or be subject to heavy damages. In this case the king 
wanted to clear Popo (the victim) but he knew the consequences 
would be dangerous, so great was the excitement. Upon hearing 
this I mounted my donkey and set off for the sand beach, where 
I arrived just as they were driving off Popo's wives and children, 
who had been taking their last farewell. About four hundred 
people were collected, and formed a hollow square, in the midst 
of which was the gree-gree man in full panoply, just raising a 
two-gallon pot filled with the poisonous decoction to the lips of 
Popo. Poor fellow ! he was so altered from his yesterday's 
drenching, and the dismal prospect before him, that I should not 



LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY. 311 

have recognized him had he been mixed with the crowd. His 
countenance was despair itself. I told them that if any one had 
palaver for Popo I would satisfy him, according to our law, and 
w^ould be responsible for all they could prove against him. Then 
taking him by the hand I bore him oif amid the mingled shouts 
and execrations of his friends and persecutors.' " 

"So much," adds Mr. Latrobe, "for the letter of Dr. 
Hall. The facts were that he was in his house, having left 
the king and the palaver in despair, when the native cus- 
tom which placed the life of Popo in his hands, as it were, 
was told him. At once mounting his donkey, and with his 
crutches, he rode to the native town, and to the brink of 
the hill overlooking the plain. Here he left the animal, 
and began his descent through bushes and rocks. Falling 
in his great haste, one of his crutches broke, but with the 
remaining one he hobbled across the interval between the 
hill and the square, into which he broke just in time to 
save the life of Popo at the imminent peril of his own." 

Eighteen years later the society's agent. Dr. Samuel 
McGill, after a quarrel with the people of King Freeman, 
consequent on the rescue of a native woman by a colonist 
from the gree-gree man and his ordeal, had a palaver, by 
which this custom was put a stop to within the limits oi 
the colony. 

When the colonists began to prosper and to trade, the 
necessity of a circulating medium became apparent. At 
first cotton was tried, as tobacco had been in colonial days 
in Maryland, but cotton not answering the purpose, the 
society issued fifteen hundred dollars' worth of paper cur- 
rency, in sums of five cents, ten cents, twenty-five cents, 
fifty cents, and a dollar. As the natives and others could 
not read, a head of tobacco was printed on the five-cent 
notes; a chicken on the ten-cent; one duck stood for 
twenty-five cents; two ducks for fifty cents; and a goat for 
a dollar. These notes were redeemable at any of the soci- 
ety's stores. 

In 1836 Dr. Hall, after four years of governorship, 



312 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

during which he added to his labors by explorations into 
the interior, found himself obliged, by failing health, to 
relinquish his position and return to America. There he 
became the agent of the society, and in that capacity made 
several subsequent visits to Africa. 

After a brief interval, and by his advice, John B. Russ- 
wurm, already spoken of, was appointed his successor as 
governor of Maryland in Liberia. Governor Russwurm 
died in office in 185 1, having made an excellent record. 
Under him the trade of the colony greatly increased, and 
its boundaries extended. Missions of all kinds flourished, 
especially those of the Episcopal Church. Cape Palmas has 
now two bishops, Bishop Pennick, a white bishop of the 
Episcopal Church, and Bishop Payne (colored), of the 
Methodist Episcopal. 

The colonists, very early in their history, built a stone 
lighthouse, which is invaluable to ships that navigate that 
coast, and after keeping it alight by primitive means for 
several years, they imported a modern lighthouse apparatus 
from England. 

The town upon the Cape they named Harper; the near- 
est village is Latrobe. There is a high school named for 
Dr. Hall, and many other Maryland friends are remem- 
bered in the geography of the colony. It has a fine har- 
bor, the best upon the coast, and probably the climate is 
the healthiest on that seaboard, the town having been 
planted on a hill; but all along the water's edge lurks dan- 
ger after dark, though the peril has been greatly mitigated 
of late years by the free use of quinine. On one occasion, 
Dr. Hall advised a French physician in charge of a boat 
party sent out to survey one of the rivers, to give his men 
large doses of quinine every morning in their coffee. The 
Frenchman, who had 'never heard of such doses of quinine, 
thought the recommendation not worth attending to. I 
believe that only one man survived the expedition. A free 
use of quinine was, at least until a few years since, little 
practised in England. It is half piteous, half amusing, to 



LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY, 313 

an American to read of the bright boyish young English 
officer who entered on the campaign to Coomassie in 1873, 
confident that he should not catch African fever, because 
some one had advised him to take two grains of quinine 
every morning before breakfast. So feeble a dose, as we 
know, would not cure a cold ! 

Europeans on the Guinea coast usually sleep on board 
their ships and land during the daytime. The temperature 
is about an even 85°, seldom more and seldom less. Thus 
it is not so hot as the ordinary climate of the United States 
in summer time, but the heat is continuous. 

On Governor Russwurm's death, Dr. McGill, another col- 
ored man, succeeded him, but by this time Liberia proper 
had become a republic, and the inhabitants of Maryland in 
Liberia, who had been gradually educating themselves in 
self-government for fifteen years, began to grow anxious to 
advance in independence and to become a sister republic. 
To this end they sent Messrs. Cassell and Prout to present 
their wishes to the society. The former was chief justice 
of the colony, having been trained for that purpose in the 
law office of Mr. Hugh Lacy Evans, of Baltimore. The 
managing committee would have preferred to see the gen- 
eral mass of the colonists more advanced in education and 
prosperity before breaking their connection with their white 
rulers, but they listened to the wishes of their proteges and 
agreed to their independence. They also sent them out a 
code of laws for their new republic, judiciously framed by 
Mr. Evans. 

On the return of their delegates the people proceeded to 
elect Mr. Prout president of their republic. On June 8, 
1854, he was inaugurated, and a few days later was pre- 
sented to the native kings and headmen as their new ruler. 
The change that had taken place was explained to them, 
and "dashes" {i.e. presents) v/ere given appropriate to the 
occasion. Le rot est mort, vive le roi / 

But the independence of Maryland in Liberia did not 
terminate its relations to the state society. The state of 



314 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

Maryland continued to appropriate to its welfare ten thou- 
sand dollars a year, a sum which Maryland in her most 
unprosperous times had never withheld from her colony. 
These appropriations the state society had always de- 
voted to the transportation and settlement of emigrants, 
the expenses of government had been met by subscriptions, 
and otherwise provided for. 

President Prout died during his term of office, and Pres- 
ident Drayton took his place. Drayton, apparently, had 
not the cautious, patient temper of his predecessors, and 
he precipitated his republic into a war with the native tribes 
within its territory, which came very near being the ruin 
of it. It was during the dry season of 1856-185 7 that 
Dr. Hall, arriving at Monrovia in the Liberian ship, 
Mary Caroline Stevens, was met by the startling news of a 
war at Cape Palmas between colonists and natives. 

"The former," he says, "having been worsted in their 
last battle, were pent up on the Cape, and the colony in 
danger of destruction. An appeal for aid had been made to 
the government at Monrovia, which I warmly seconded, and 
offered to supply funds for that purpose. The joint peti- 
tion was granted, and a call for volunteers made. Within 
twenty-four hours one hundred and twenty fellows followed 
the recruiting officer, being a surplus of twenty over the 
hundred asked for. Such a string of sojers I never before 
witnessed; mostly boys born and raised in the upper settle- 
ments, many shoeless, — merely shirted and breeched, — 
decidedly light infantry. To a friend I expressed surprise 
that any good could be expected from such material. 'Fear 
not,' said he, 'they'll fight like devils! ' — Not otherwise, I 
felt sure. In another twenty-four hours all were on board 
the Mary Caroline Stevens, one hundred and fifteen rank 
and file, well officered and equipped. The boy sojers were 
now in full Zouave dress, so well known to us in later times, 
but seeming to me then to comport with my friend's des- 
ignation of their character as fighters. They appeared fear- 
fully lawless, even endangering the management of the ship, 



^ LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY. 3 15 

but they were soon brought to order by their officers, and 
never did I witness so great a change as two days' severe 
drilling on shipboard wrought in those wild Cape Mount 
boys. On landing at Palmas, their reputation as Cape 
boys, their remarkable dress and martial bearing, most 
effectually did the business. No fighting followed. A 
palaver was called and peace established, much, I appre- 
hend, to the disappointment of these young Dalgettys, who 
seemed anxious for 'a little shindy ' at least." 

But the infant republic had been decidedly demoralized. 
It appreciated the assistance received from Monrovia, and 
it felt the desirability of strengthening its own feebleness 
by annexation to the older and more powerful republic of 
Liberia. It therefore applied to be absorbed into that 
republic, and changed its style and title from the republic 
of Maryland in Liberia to Maryland County, in the Libe- 
rian republic. 

For two years after that the state legislature of Maryland 
continued to make an annual grant of five thousand dollars 
to its late protege ; then our Civil War broke out and the 
grant was discontinued. 

Cape Palmas continues to be a flourishing place, sharing 
with Monrovia the boom given to all things on the West 
African coast by the new interest created in Africa. 

The International Association that has taken the Congo 
Free State into its care has drawn on the experience of 
Maryland's own colony for instruction as to the way of 
making treaties with native princes. 

Thus ends this episode in the history of early coloniza- 
tion on the western coast of Africa; before I conclude, 
however, with some brief remarks on the present prospects 
of Liberia, I ask my readers' leave to say a few words con- 
cerning my own connection with Liberia proper (not Mary- 
land in Liberia) in 1853. 

There was very considerable abolition and anti-abolition 
feeling that year in Virginia, promoted by the publication, 
in 1852, of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." There were laws in 



3l6 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

Virginia, never put in force, but standing threateningly on 
the statute book, that all free negroes must be expelled the 
state, and public opinion, roused by outside aggression (as it 
was considered), seemed disposed to insist that they should 
be put in operation. On a farm in the valley of Virginia, 
where I had passed the summer with my near relatives, there 
were two free negroes who had married slaves. One was a 
maid-servant, beloved and trusted in the family in which 
she had been brought up, who had married a slave-man in 
the neighborhood; the other was a man of very light com- 
plexion, who had married a favorite servant of my cousin's, 
and had five children. He was very anxious to emigrate 
with his family to Liberia. I was urged by their friends to 
see if anything could be done to raise the purchase money, 
and, on going North, I published a letter in several papers 
and also in the London "Spectator," offering to receive 
subscriptions. 

No words can describe the kindness and generosity my 
appeal brought forth. Money and letters came to me from 
all quarters. Rough farmers from the West sent in their 
contributions with touching words that meant " God speed 
you"; colored school-teachers in Maine and Canada, and 
the leading rich men in Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, 
and New York sent me money. People who had much sent 
much; people who had little must often have sent more 
than they could afford. It seemed to readers of "Uncle 
Tom's Cabin" a practical way of expressing sympathy. 
Among the letters I received was one from Mr. James 
Russell Lowell, so characteristic of himself and of the 
feeling that prevailed at that time among men like himself 
in New England, that I insert it here. 

'^ Elmwood, Cambridge, August i, 1853. 

" . . .It was very kind of you to begin your note with a list of 
all possible excuses for my not giving anything — spreading a 
sort of merciful feather bed to break my fall in case I should 
attempt to escape my duty by some desperate spring through the 
window. It is probably true that (as one of the Executive Com- 



LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY. 317 

mittee of the Anti-Slavery Society) I have an ex-officio theory 
on the subject that we ought not to consent to any compensation 
at all, — a kind of ice-palace which affords but a fugitive shelter 
against the kindly sunshine of human nature, — and on the other 
hand, I have another, and quite as good a theory in my private 
capacity as a man, that it might be a difficult thing for me, were 
I a slaveholder, to sacrifice all I have to my sense of duty, nay, 
that it might be hard to have a sense of duty at all in the prem- 
ises. Now I allow my two theories a fair fight, and like the 
Western hunter, my prayer is : ' Lord help me — or, if you won't 
help me, don't help the b'ar.' Under these circumstances the 
human theory generally gets the better of the bearish. As an 
executive committee man, therefore, I resolutely refuse to give 
anything, but in my private capacity I send what I can, assuring 
you that were my poems more popular my gift should be larger." 

It was not long before I raised the three thousand dollars 
needed. Two of my people, husband and wife, went to 
Philadelphia. John Gordon, with his wife and family, 
came down to Baltimore, where they were received by a 
friend who undertook to buy stores, and to see them off in 
the colonization ship for Monrovia. As he stood on the 
deck watching them, the captain, pointing to the father of 
the family, a man of very light complexion, said : " There's 
a man now who will not stand the climate for a year." 

They were well provided, every one having given me the 
stores needed at cost price. They reached Monrovia after 
an averagely good passage, but my next news was that the 
mother of the family had died of dysentery, brought on by 
too free indulgence in pineapples and guavas. Her husband 
followed her within a year. The children became accli- 
mated; for several years I heard frequently of them through 
a colored minister at Monrovia, — -then I heard of them no 
more; and to this day I cannot but feel humbled when I 
think how disproportioned to the generous enthusiasm I 
evoked was the good that it accomplished. 

Liberia is becoming, however, more salubrious. There 
are new healthy settlements in the hill country, especially 
Arthington, which is about twenty-five miles north of Mon- 
rovia, on the St. Paul River. Coffee is the principal export; 



3l8 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

last year nine hundred and eighty thousand pounds were 
exported, eighteen thousand being from one plantation at 
Arthington. The Liberians have commercial treaties with 
England and Holland, and send to those countries double 
the amount of produce shipped to the United States. The 
population of Liberia is put down at one million, but this 
includes the native tribes. A few years ago much was 
expected from the development of the hinterland of the 
republic, said to be inhabited by a not wholly uncivilized 
tribe, but the French, who have appropriated so large a 
share of the west coast, are closing round upon Liberia. An 
expedition, having principally for its object the exploration 
of the river Cavally, the eastern boundary of Liberia, has 
been confided to two French officers, Captains Merchant 
and Manet. The river Cavally is supposed to be navigable 
for nearly its whole extent. Its headwaters are in the 
French protectorate, and it divides Liberia from territory 
claimed by France. France desires command of the river 
Cavally, and a seaport near its mouth on the Gulf of 
Guinea; and demands, in consequence, from Liberia a 
cession of one-third of her coast line. 

The policy of the United States forbids more than the 
expression of friendly interest in the welfare of Liberia. 

Formerly a United States Navy vessel yearly visited Mon- 
rovia and Cape Palmas and took in supplies there; this, 
it is said, had a salutary and moral influence upon rebel- 
lious and predatory tribes of natives and aggressive foreign 
powers. 

President Cleveland, in a recent annual message to Con- 
gress, spoke thus of the difficulties that at present threaten 
Liberia : — 

" A notable part of the southeasterly coast of Liberia, between 
the Cavally and San Pedro rivers, which for nearly half a century 
has been generally recognized as belonging to that republic by 
cession and purchase, has been claimed to be under the protecto- 
rate of France in virtue of agreements entered into by the native 
tribes, over whom Liberia's control has not been well maintained. 
More recently negotiations between the Liberian representative 



LIBERIA, AND MARYLAND'S OWN COLONY. 319 

and the French government resulted in the signature, in Paris, of 
a treaty whereby, as an adjustment, certain Liberian territory is 
ceded to France. This convention, by last advices, had not 
been ratified by the Liberian legislature and executive. Feeling 
a sympathetic interest in the fortunes of the little commonwealth, 
the establishment and development of which were largely aided 
by the benevolence of our countrymen, and which constitutes 
the only independently sovereign state on the west coast of 
Africa, this government has suggested to the French government 
its earnest concern lest territorial impairment in Liberia should 
take place without her unrestrained consent." 

As to the lines of cable that now run between Europe and 
the west coast of Africa, their number is amazing. There 
are two lines of steamers running from England to all ports 
from Sierra Leone to St. Paul de Loanda; there are steam- 
boats on the Congo, on the Niger, on Lake Tanganyika, 
and on Lake Nyasa. They have plied, with occasional 
interruptions, upon Lake Albert and the Victoria Nyanza. 
There are Protestant missionaries and missions scattered 
all over Congo Free State, to say nothing of East Africa, 
besides Cardinal Lavigerie's White Fathers, — and yet, 
alas! rum, whiskey, gin, and brandy have been literally 
poured into Africa, and tribes where Christianity had 
seemed to be making progress now have their headmen 
drunkards. 

To the credit of Liberia be it said that, although Dr. 
Hall's prohibition of the importation of liquor into his 
colony has long been repealed, the importation and sale of 
spirits in Liberia is far less in proportion to the population 
than in other parts of Western Africa. 

Mr. Stanley, who has more than once been in Liberia, 
speaks thus of the young republic. He had been express- 
ing wonder that America, in view of her own share in the 
trade of Africa, had not done more to assist Liberia to 
develop her resources : — 

"The American people have apparently forgotten that 
it was through the philanthropy of their own citizens that 
the Free State of Liberia was ever founded; to the establish- 



320 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

ment of which Americans had contributed two million five 
hundred and fifty-eight thousand dollars to create homes for 
the eighteen thousand free Africans whom they despatched 
to settle in that country. This state, which they ought to 
regard with honest pride, has an area of fourteen thousand 
square miles, and a revenue of over one hundred thousand 
dollars. Its establishment was a work well worthy of the 
great republic. It was her place to take the lead in pub- 
licly recognizing and supporting the great work of African 
civilization, and she ought to promote the extension of its 
commerce, in view of the future interests of the seven mill- 
ions of people of African descent now within the Union." 
From what has been said, however, it will be seen that 
our Federal government had nothing to do with the coloni- 
zation of Liberia; this was solely due to private philan- 
thropy and to the little state of Maryland. 



CHAPTER XII. 
England's litixe wars. 

ENGLAND'S traditional policy is to abstain if possible 
from great wars. The universal satisfaction felt in 
England at the severance of the crowns of Great Britain and 
Hanover arose largely from the belief that England, being 
no longer a continental power, need have nothing to do 
thenceforth with continental wars. Twenty years later 
there was to be seen a fierce flame of warlike enthusiasm, 
which we now regard with astonishment, at the time of the 
Crimean War, but this was, as it were, a fire of straw. Eng- 
land had more than enough war from 1854 to 1858 in the 
Crimea and the Indian Mutiny. But with her vast extent 
of empire, owning, as the Queen-Empress does, the suze- 
rainty of one-sixth of the whole world, England has neces- 
sarily complicated interests to protect, and is continually 
involved in little wars. 

In Africa, during the past thirty years, she has engaged 
in six of these small wars. I have told of two of these, the 
war with Abyssinia in 1868, the war with Egypt in 1882. 
Four others remain to be accounted for ; the brief war with 
Coffee, King of Ashantee, in 1873, the war with Cetywayo 
in Zululand (1879), the war with the Boers (1881), and the 
recent war with King Lobengula in Matabeleland. 

The kingdom of Ashantee is in the west of Africa, and 
lies north of possessions on the Gold Coast under EngHsh 
protection. The inhabitants of Ashantee call themselves 
Santees, or Shantees, and are of the same race as the mis- 
erable cowardly Fantees who inhabit the Enghsh posses- 
sions. The Santees and the Fantees are continually at war. 
Y 321 



322 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

The one race has been for ages the oppressor, and the 
other the oppressed ; nothing has prevented the subjects 
of the King of Ashantee from " eating up," as the African 
phrase is, the feeble Fantees but the power of the Dutch 
and Enghsh on the coast. 

Sir Garnet Wolseley, in an article in the "Fortnightly 
Re\^ew " on the " Negro as a Soldier," attributes the great 
difference between the two branches of a kindred race to 
their opposite forms of native government. The Ashantee 
kingdom is a pure despotism of the most rigorous kind. 

" It was at the time of its last war with the English a 
purely mihtarv' monarchy, whose first aim was to be power- 
ful and to dominate over all its neighbors. The laws of the 
kingdom were httle more than an iron code, intended for 
the government of an army, before the wants and require- 
ments of which every other consideration had to bend. All 
those laws which in civilized nations of to-day are designed 
for the protection of property and the social well-being of 
the men, women, and children who compose them, were 
contrived solely with a view to the fighting efficiency of the 
army ; upon which the kingdom rested, and which in fact 
was that kingdom itself." 

Several times the Santees had come into collision with 
the English. Once in 1824, when they had the satisfaction 
of massacring an English army one thousand strong, and 
carrying off the skull of its general to the King's treasure- 
house at Coomassie, where it was mounted with gold and 
brought forth as a drinking cup for king and chiefs on 
great occasions. In 1833 another dispute occurred. Some 
fugitive slaves, belonging to the King of Ashantee, had taken 
refuge at Cape Coast Castle, under the protection of its 
governor Captain MacLean, husband of Miss Letitia Eliza- 
beth Landon, whose writings we all know as those of L. E. L.^ 

1 Captain MacLean was at one time popularly supposed to have 
murdered his wife, or to have driven her to commit suicide. The poor 
poetess died most probably of a wrong dose of medicine, which she 
swallowed when meaning only to take an anodyne. It is a melan- 
choly story of an ill-assorted marriage, but no blame seems justly due 
to Captain MacLean. 




CETYWAYO. 



ENGLAND'S LITTLE WARS. 323 

The dispute became so warm when the king insisted that 
the escaped wretches should be given up to his vengeance, 
that Captain MacLean organized an expedition into the 
Ashantee country, where fever and dysentery so attacked 
the troops that they died ofif Hke flies, and the best attain- 
able peace had to be patched up. 

In 1872 the Dutch ceded Elmina and several other set- 
tlements they had upon the coast to the English. The 
Dutch had always paid some pension or tribute to the 
Ashantee king; this the English refused to continue. King 
Coffee then menaced the English with hostilities, and 
attacked the Fantees, who were under English protection. 
An army was sent out to punish and put him down. It was 
largely composed of black regiments from the West Indies, 
under the command of English officers. The general in 
chief was Sir Garnet Wolseley, who, in 1870, had distin- 
guished himself in a campaign in Manitoba. 

"In the Ashantee army," said Sir Garnet, speaking of the 
campaign, "each man fought in dread of the executioner's 
knife. The man in front felt that he ran less danger by 
going forward than by running away. The refrain of the 
Ashantee war-song, which they shouted in chorus when 
going into battle, was : — 

" If I go forward I die ; 
If I go backward I die ; 
Better go forward and die." 

If the coward deserted to the enemy, or became a fugitive 
to avoid condign punishment, not only was he an outlaw 
forever, but his children and nearest relatives paid for his 
sins by suffering decapitation or by being sold as slaves." 

The expedition started from Portsmouth in September, 
1873. It was back again at the same port in March, 1874, 
with its work well accomplished. It was not the Ashan- 
tees — fierce warriors as they were — that were to be 
dreaded, but the climate. All had to be accomplished in 
the cooler months. "The success of the campaign was a 
question of days, almost of hours, and the victory was 



324 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

snatched out of the very jaws of approaching sun and 
fever." 

<%Sir Garnet, who was a wonderful organizer, timed him- 
self almost to a day. He pushed on rapidly to Coomassie, 
burnt it, and began his retreat. He had not gone far when 
envoys from the king met him, proposing terms of peace. 
His Majesty was the great property owner and legal heir of 
his subjects. Wives were considered an important part of 
a man's property, as they cultivated his land, but the king 
was limited by an unwritten law to three thousand three 
hundred and thirty-three. One part of the treaty made by 
Sir Garnet Wolseley with King Coffee provided for the 
abolishment of human sacrifices. There are supposed to 
be vast gold mines in the Ashantee country, but they are 
under the protection of local demons, and, therefore, not 
worked. 

The only good or glory England got out of the Ashantee 
war was a sense of the admirable management with which 
it was conducted. 

The empire of King Coffee was broken up after the war; 
his prestige and power were gone. The nation split up 
into little clans or kingdoms; the king at Coomassie having, 
however, power to call out the chiefs as his feudatories in 
case of war. King Coffee died not long after, and those 
who came after him seem to have had neither his power, 
his prestige, nor his capacity. 

A traveller to Coomassie, in 1884, describes the town 
as inhabited by a dejected, demoralized people, scattered 
among a mass of almost tenantless houses, the homes once 
of a large population, now sadly reduced by war, the knife, 
and desertion. " A perpetual terror pervades the population, 
a terror in marked contrast to the calm of their brethren in 
the protectorate, who, untaught, untaxed, and protected, 
wallow through life in peaceful contentment." 

We turn now to South Africa and two other little wars, 
that with the Zulus in 1878, and the subsequent war with 
the Boers in the Transvaal, which took place in 188 1. We 



ENGLAND' S LITTLE WARS. 325 

may, perhaps, begin by correcting an error common, at 
least among middle-aged and elderly people, who took their 
first lessons in geography at their mothers' knees, viz., that 
the Cape of Good Hope is the southernmost point of Af- 
rica. It is not so by one hundred miles. The real south- 
ern point is Cape Agulhas, a bold bluff southeast of the 
reputed southerly point of Africa. On Cape Agulhas a 
lighthouse was erected by the authorities at the Cape in 
1849. 

When the continent was first rounded by the Portuguese 
in i486, there may be said to have been three divisions of 
the aboriginal inhabitants of South Africa. Bushmen, the 
lowest in intelligence, physical structure, and moral instincts; 
Hottentots, differing somewhat from the Bushmen, even in 
physical formation; and the great Bantu race, commonly 
known to settlers by the generic name of Kafirs, of which the 
best-known tribe is the Zulu. Those who study the history 
of races believe these people to be the descendants of men 
of Indian blood who have intermarried with the negro race. 
"Among them, at the present day, are men with perfect 
Asiatic features, born of parents with the negro cast of 
countenance; and while, as a general thing, they seem 
unable to rise to the European level of civilization, not a 
few individuals have shown themselves possessed of mental 
power equal to that of white men." 

The first Portuguese commander to round the Cape of 
Good Hope in i486 called it the Cape of Storms. He 
was Bartholomew Diaz. Vasco da Gama followed him five 
years after Columbus had discovered America. In 15 10 
a large party of Portuguese were murdered by Hottentots 
in Table Bay; and after that Portuguese fleets doubled the 
continent year after year, but never touched at a land inhab- 
ited by such dangerous savages. 

At the close of the sixteenth century a Dutch company 
was formed for trading with the East Indies and the Spice 
Islands. A similar company, a few years later, was incor- 
porated for trading to the West Indies, and had its head- 



326 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY, 

quarters at New Amsterdam on the island of Manhattan. 
The servants of the Dutch East India Company found the 
valley under Table Mountain an excellent halting place. 
It was held to be two-thirds of the distance from Amsterdam 
to Batavia, and soon a fort and a little settlement sprang 
up there. The company by degrees increased its colony. 
It made a rule that only married men of Dutch or German 
birth should be sent out, or have land assigned them. As 
each man proved himself capable to make a competent liv- 
ing, he had only to apply for his wife and children to be 
forwarded to him from Europe, and they were sent to him. 
Still the great cry in the settlement was for Europeans. 
After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes many Hugue- 
not refugees in Holland consented to join a large number 
of emigrants forwarded by the company to its South African 
colony. 

In 1705 there was considerable discontent among the 
colonists with their governor; quarrels, more or less, went 
on during the century; the company was tottering to its fall, 
it was unable to bear the expenses of the colony, and in 
1795 the colonists effected a revolution. 

At this time the revolutionary armies of France invaded 
Holland, and were received by the Dutch with enthusiasm. 
The English, looking on Dutch colonies as now French, 
lost no time in sending an expedition to South Africa 
and taking possession of Capetown. They held it till the 
Peace of Amiens, very much to the discontent of the Dutch 
colonists, whose domestic affairs they interfered with, im- 
pelled by English aversion to slavery. At the Peace of 
Amiens the colonists were restored to Holland, but only 
for two years. In 1806, when war again broke out with 
Napoleon, the English recovered the colony, and the last 
representative of the Netherlands in South Africa set sail in 
an English ship for Holland. 

The government of the colony at once became autocratic ; 
every vestige of the democratic institutions which during 
three years the burghers had endeavored to re-establish, 



ENGLAND'S LITTLE WARS. 327 

was swept away. Perpetual disputes and discontents 
arose, a large number of them growing out of divergent 
views concerning the treatment of the natives, whether 
free or in slavery. 

In 1820 and 182 1 nearly five thousand emigrants were 
sent out to the Cape by the British government. Capetown 
was becoming a most important station on the route to 
India. Villages and farms were scattered over the interior. 
Bat the English rule was always distasteful to Dutch farm- 
ers, called Boers, — the same word that is applied to German 
agriculturists, — bauei-. Many of the Boers had acquired 
large farms, especially those who devoted themselves to 
grape culture, and made that delicious sweet wine, once 
popular in Europe, called Constantia. The disputes on 
the slavery question growing more and more bitter, large 
numbers of the Boers harnessed up their ox-teams, deserted 
their farms, and passed beyond the English jurisdiction, 
which then only extended to the Orange River. Some 
also settled in Natal. But English annexation pursued 
them even there. Natal became part of the British South 
African dominion, as well as the country between the head- 
waters of the Orange and the Vaal rivers, though that is 
now Orange Free State, having subsequently been given up 
to its Boer farmers, who have made of it an independent 
republic. 

These annexations brought the frontier of the English to 
the Transvaal, or land beyond the river Vaal, a country 
inhabited by the Zulus (a tribe of the Bantu or Kafir 
race), who dwelt also in Natal, In Natal many Boers 
had settled and m.ade homes. The keenest antipathy of a 
Boer was to a Kafir; his next keenest dislike was to an 
Englishman. 

The Kafirs and the Boers lived in perpetual enmity. 
The Kafirs, of course, were savages, and the Boers, in their 
intercourse with Kafirs, were accused of being civilized 
savages, which is worse still. Kafir means simply a pagan, 
and is the name given by Mohammedans to all idolaters. 



328 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

The race that we call Kafirs call themselves Bantu, and 
are divided into many different clans or tribes, like our 
Red Indians. They are called by some a handsome race, 
and are dark copper-colored, though I should think the 
term "handsome" applied only to their physique, their 
faces, as represented in their portraits, being generally 
repulsive. They are proud of their nationality and of their 
persons. They can be genial, good-humored, and com- 
panionable, or ferocious, hypocritical, and untrustworthy. 
Strange to say, the Zulu power, which, in 1879, so sadly 
extinguished the hopes of the Napoleonic dynasty, owed its 
origin indirectly to the great Napoleon. Chaka, a young 
Zulu chief, heard of the great doings in Europe of " Sultan 
Buonaberdi," and resolved to imitate him. He formed a 
phalanx of young men around him like Napoleon's Old 
Guard, and imposed himself, by this organized force, upon 
his neighbors as a sort of feudal emperor. His discipline 
was as severe as that of the King of Ashantee. He trans- 
formed his people into an armed nation by a system not 
very unlike that of Germany. Every man had to spend 
much of his life as a soldier. The only exceptions to this 
rule were the sorcerers. On these sorcerers he, however, 
looked with a jealous eye, as did his grandson, Cetywayo, 
who, after his captivity, complained that the English had 
enormously increased the power of those men by taking 
them under their protection and forbidding him to put them 
to death. 

Chaka having made his own land into a camp, cruelly 
ravaged Natal, leaving, out of a million of inhabitants, not 
more than twenty thousand. The Zulus are hunters, soldiers, 
and cattle breeders, while tribes of other races found 
among them are not unskillful workers in metals. The 
women are the agriculturists. The principal grain raised is 
a species of Indian corn, called mealies. But their chief 
food is milk and its various preparations. The heaven of 
the Zulus, peopled by their chiefs and great men, is a species 
of Valhalla. Witchcraft of course they firmly believe in. 



ENGLAND'S LITTLE WARS. 329 

Up to 1848 what are now Orange Free State and the 
Transvaal Republic were settled by Dutch farmers, who had 
"trekked" north to be beyond British dominion. They 
could not have been said to have much government. Each 
Boer lived many miles from the farm-house of his next 
neighbor, and each patriarchal householder did pretty much 
what seemed good in his own eyes. If any circumstance 
called for magisterial interference he sought out the nearest 
landrost, who probably lived far away, like the minister or 
the doctor. There was no taxation, there was no police, 
there were no roads ; and with the surrounding savage 
tribes, or his own Kafir servants, the Boer dealt as he 
thought proper. 

England in 1852 distinctly recognized the independence 
of the Transvaal Republic; and that of the Orange Free 
State in 1854. In 1874 there was a Kafir war in Natal 
between the English and a Bantu or Kafir chief, called 
Langalibalele. This man, though apparently lord only of 
a little village, had an immense influence over a number of 
the Bantu clans. Natives were forbidden to purchase fire- 
arms in Natal, but Langalibalele was accumulating a large 
number of guns and a considerable quantity of ammunition. 
Government demanded the arms, or at least such an account 
of them as might lead to their registration, and when obedi- 
ence was refused, sent troops to enforce it. The troops 
were resisted and suffered loss. Then the whole country 
awoke to a sense of danger. Volunteers poured in from 
every part of South Africa ; Cape Colony and the two 
republics sent Natal help. By prompt measures the chief, 
with a large detachment of his followers, was surrounded, 
and surrendered to the Cape armed and mounted police. 
Langalibalele was imprisoned on Robbins Island, and many 
thought that he was treated with more harshness than was 
necessary. He was subsequently, however, removed to a 
large farm on the mainland, where he was joined by his 
wives and children. 

It was the fate of Langalibalele that subsequently inspired 



330 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

the mistrust and suspicion of Cetywayo, that king whose 
name according to its spelling, Cetshwayo, it was said could 
only be pronounced by two sneezes and a cough. He had 
succeeded to the power of Chaka after a great victory over 
his own brother, and on his accession was inclined to be on 
good terms with the English, thinking he would acquire 
power and consideration among his people if the Great 
White Nation was known to be his friend and ally. He 
even proposed to go through a ceremony in which Sir 
Theophilus Shepstone (the English commissioner to the 
Transvaal, sent out by the English government to effect, if 
possible, a confederation of the South African States) should 
act the part of Pandulph, and himself that of King John. 
He also probably thought that, being a vassal of the English, 
he would be better protected from the Boers. He was 
personally much attached to Sir Theophilus Shepstone, also 
to John Dunn, an English sailor, whom he made one of his 
chiefs, to Bishop Colenso of Natal, and to a Dutchman 
named Vijn. 

Meantime the Transvaal Republic, which had little or 
no government, organization, or public money, made war 
on a Kafir chief called Secocoeni, who got the better of the 
Dutchmen. In their dread of being wholly overpowered, 
some of the leading men of the Transvaal appealed to Sir 
Theophilus and offered to turn over their republic, which 
was bankrupted, to England as the price of her protection. 
It was not a national offer. The majority of the Boers 
detested English rule. Sir Theophilus Shepstone, how- 
ever, too hastily accepted the proposition, and proclaimed 
the Transvaal to be an English colony. At this time (1878) 
disputes were going on about a strip of land of which 
the Boers claimed to have been purchasers, but which the 
Zulus declared had been only leased to them for a limited 
term of years. The Boers had to fly for their lives from 
the disputed territory, and Sir Bartle Frere, arriving from 
England only two days after Sir Theophilus Shepstone had, 
by proclamation, annexed the Transvaal, took the direction 
of affairs. 



ENGLAND'S LITTLE WARS. 331 

By the time, however, that Sir Bartle Frere reached 
Africa, views in the English Cabinet of colonial policy 
had somewhat changed. Lord Carnarvon, whose pet 
scheme it was to consolidate into a confederation the 
South African States, as he had already done those in 
Canada, had resigned his post as colonial secretary. The 
Turkish war had just closed, with all the complications it 
entailed upon the rest of the European powers. The 
cabinet of Lord Beaconsfield had enough perplexing 
matters on its hands, and was by no means desirous to 
involve itself in disputes about fragments of South African 
territory. 

A bill permitting the South African States to form a 
confederation had been passed in the English Parliament; 
but public opinion at the Cape was much opposed to the 
scheme. Cape Colonists objected to sharing the expense 
of guarding an extended frontier from the inroads of the 
Kafirs. Their own Kafirs were now peaceable, their 
Kafir wars were things of the past. "But those living 
near the frontier believed that the natives were growing 
in strength and restlessness, and were stirred by a general 
movement against the white people." 

This was Sir Bartle Frere 's own view. He had a 
sharp controversy with the local government at Cape 
Town, and then went to the frontier to see things for him- 
self. He seems to have formed the opinion that affairs in 
South Africa were analogous to those in India on the eve 
of the Mutiny. 

The Zulus were by far the most powerful of the native 
tribes, and Sir Bartle Frere, regarding their king as the 
probable leader in the general rising that he anticipated, 
seems to have felt that no time should be lost in firmly 
putting him down. 

Horrible massacres and barbarities had been committed 
by Zulus in the disputed strip of territory, and now that 
the Transvaal was annexed, it was the business of the 
British administration to deal sternly, decisively, and at 



332 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

once, with Cetywayo and his people. English arbitrators 
had been appointed to investigate the rival claims to the 
disputed territory. They reported in favor of the Zulus 
and against the Boers. This was not what Sir Bartle Frere 
either wished or expected; and he delayed communicating 
the decision to Cetywayo, until he had introduced, not 
unreasonable stipulations, that the Boer farmers should 
be either compensated for their loss, or protected, accord- 
ing as they elected to leave their farms or remain on 
them. He also demanded that a British resident at the 
king's kraal should be especially charged with the duty 
of seeing this done. This began to inspire Cetywayo with 
distrust, and the Zulus are naturally suspicious. He 
remembered the fate of Langalibalele, and determined to 
prepare himself, as diplomatists would say, " for all even- 
tualities." He strengthened his army and made ready for 
war. 

An ultimatum was sent to him early in December, 1878, 
demanding that his army should be disbanded, or else the 
English would declare war. In vain the colonial ofhce 
had sent letters and telegrams from England, urging on its 
representative to avoid rather than precipitate a war in 
Zululand. Sir Bartle looked only to what he conceived 
was the welfare of the Transvaal and other African depen- 
dencies on the frontier. He forgot that England had other 
interests, and that the little war he proposed in his prov- 
ince might prove to her of no advantage. 

He had, however, taken the first step. He had sent his 
ultimatum on December 11, two days before peremptory 
orders from England to keep the peace reached him. 
Cetywayo declined to dismiss his warriors. On January 
10, 1879, English troops entered Zululand. This force 
was under the command of Lord Chelmsford, and was 
composed partly of British soldiers, partly of colonists, 
and partly of blacks. It marched in three columns, and 
each had a prodigious train of wagons, drivers, and cattle; 
for the army had to carry its own supplies. 



ENGLAND'S LITTLE WARS. 333 

The objective point was Cetywayo's chief kraal at Ulundi, 
in the centre of his dominions. It seems to have been 
taken for granted that the Zulus had no notion of tactics; 
but their movements had been well conceived, and were 
excuted with secrecy, celerity, and effect. On January 
20, ten days after entering the country, the main body of 
the English army encamped on a hillside at a place called 
Isandlwana, a name to be long remembered by English- 
men, who are not used to a severe military disaster. Lord 
Chelmsford had written, "The country is in a terrible state 
from rain. I do not know how we shall manage to get our 
wagons across the valley. ... In seventy miles three 
rivers have to be crossed, which are almost impassable." 

No precautions were taken at Isandlwana to fortify the 
camp, no trench was dug, no scouts sent out; even the 
numerous wagons of the train were not used to form a 
laager. A local correspondent wrote at the time : — 

"The head camp was no camp; all wagons, tents, etc., 
were scattered about anywhere; and when the Zulus made 
their attack they came on like waves on the ocean shore, 
— never stopped, never shouted, or said a word, till our 
fellows, white and black, were surrounded; then they gave 
a shout and dashed at the camp, and in five minutes there 
was not a man left." 

Lord Chelmsford, the commander in chief, was absent. 
With part of his force he had gone to attack a kraal sev- 
eral miles away. A few men, chiefly mounted irregular 
cavalry, managed to make their way through the circle of 
Zulu spears and escape; but the ground was full of bowlders 
and the dry beds of irregular torrents, so that many were 
overtaken and killed; among them two young ofificers who 
were endeavoring to save the colors of their regiment. 

"Nearly seven hundred British soldiers, white and black, 
perished; and one hundred and thirty colonists. The 
victors' loss was estimated at three to one." 

The same afternoon the news reached Lord Chelmsford, 
who, under a blazing sun, hurried back his tired troops to 



334 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

Isandlwana. The Zulus had departed, carrying off their 
plunder. Lord Chelmsford and his forces found little but 
the corpses of the slain. Destitute of stores, they had no 
alternative but to retreat. 

A small party, left to defend the crossing of the Buffalo 
River at Rorke's Drift, — or ford, — received warning in 
time to enable them to make a laager of cornsacks and 
boxes of biscuits, behind which they fought so gallantly 
that they drove off the enemy. "This splendid defence," 
says Mr. Theal, the latest and most exhaustive writer on 
South Africa, " saved Natal from invasion, for if the post 
at Rorke's Drift had fallen, the colony would have been 
open to the Zulus." 

Colonel Pearson, who was in command of another 
column, consisting of about four thousand men, of whom 
half were Europeans, crossed into Zululand near the sea, 
and marched towards Ulundi, the king's capital, or chief 
kraal, where it had been proposed that the three columns 
should unite. Fighting his way, he reached a Norwegian 
mission station called Etshowe, and there learned of the 
disaster at Isandlwana. He at once fortified the station 
and held it bravely till reinforcements reached him, on the 
arrival of Sir Garnet Wolseley from England. 

The third column, under Sir Evelyn Wood (since well 
known to the public by his connection with Egypt, and by 
his most interesting personal reminiscences of the war in 
the Crimea) also fortified a post, and held out although 
attacked by an immense Zulu army. 

It may easily be imagined what excitement this news 
produced in England and throughout South Africa. 
That an English army should have been surprised and 
massacred in broad day, by naked savages, seemed past 
belief. To Sir Bartle Frere the shock was the most terrible 
he had ever experienced; he said that in Natal there was 
a panic such as he had never witnessed during the Indian 
Mutiny. M- home the ministry were vehemently attacked 
for their South African policy, and, although in Parliament 



ENGLAND'S LITTLE WARS. 335 

they supported their representative, they did not forbear 
from writing him a despatch to the effect that he ought 
not, without first obtaining the sanction of the British 
government, to have insisted in an ultimatum on the dis- 
bandment of Cetywayo's army; on his receiving a resi- 
dent; or on the fulfilment of his promises of better 
government. The despatch pointed out that no evidence 
had been produced of urgent necessity for present action, 
"which alone," it said, "could justify you in taking, 
without the full knowledge and sanction of the govern- 
ment, a course almost certain to result in war, which, as I 
had previously impressed upon you, every effort should 
have been made to avoid." 

Of course reinforcements were hurried out to Lord 
Chelmsford. In June, 1879, Sir Garnet Wolseley arrived 
to become governor-general of Natal and the Transvaal, 
but the military command remained with Lord Chelms- 
ford, who had already completed arrangements for an 
advance upon Ulundi. Before Sir Garnet arrived upon 
the scene, the disaster at Isandlwana had been retrieved, 
and a final battle fought with Cetywayo. His men had 
lost heart. Since their first triumph they had been unsuc- 
cessful in every attack on the white men. Lord Chelms- 
ford penetrated to Ulundi, and in the battle that followed 
formed his men into a hollow square, against which the 
rush of Zulus dashed itself in vain. Utterly defeated, the 
army of Cetywayo dispersed, never to be united again. 
Ulundi and the military kraals near it were burned. The 
war was over. The colonists were dismissed to their own 
homes, and all that remained to be done was to make 
Cetywayo prisoner. 

He successfully eluded capture a long time. Not one of 
his subjects could be, for many weeks, induced by bribes 
or threats to betray him. At last one man yielded to 
temptation, and pointed out a little kraal on the edge of 
a thick forest, where, weary and footsore, he was resting. 
The English officer in command of the party in pursuit 



336 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

threatened to burn down the hut, when the king came 
forth and, standing before him, said: "You would not 
have taken me, but I never thought troops could come 
down the mountain through the forest." A chief, seven 
men, a boy, five women, and a girl were captured with 
Cetywayo. 

With the reinforcements sent out to Zululand to retrieve 
the disaster of Isandlwana went the Prince Imperial, son of 
Napoleon III., and the Empress Eugenie, who was then little 
more than twenty-one years old. He had been educated 
at Woolwich, the West Point for English officers; all his 
companions were gaing; it was the first opportunity he 
had had to see war; to show himself to the French people 
as a man and a soldier; to begin to acquire that experi- 
ence that some day would enable him to head French 
armies against Germany, and recover the lost prestige of 
his name. There may have been another motive^ too, a 
desire to stand well with the English people, in view of a 
possible marriage with the youngest English princess. 

Lord Chelmsford was not glad to see him. He felt a 
new responsibility added to his cares. And yet it was 
hard to thwart and to resist the poor young fellow's great 
anxiety to be of use and to see service; which, with his 
gentleness and humanity, endeared him to all his com- 
rades, and proved him to be a true soldier to his heart's 
core. 

For some time he acted as extra aid-de-camp to Lord 
Chelmsford. After a while, however. Colonel Harrison of 
the Engineers, having been appointed assistant quarter- 
master-general, with Lieutenant Carey of the 98th Regiment 
as his assistant. Lord Chelmsford requested the colonel 
to give some work to the Prince Imperial, as he was 
anxious for it, saying he did not find enough to do as an 
extra aid-de-camp. For some days he worked hard at 
office work, then, as Lord Chelmsford was going to the 
town of Newcastle for a few days, Colonel Harrison sug- 
gested that it would be advisable in his lordship's absence 




PRINCE LOUIS NAPOLEON. 



ENGLAND'S LITTLE WARS. 337 

to make a reconnaissance into Zululand, to determine the 
exact route by which fresh columns were to advance a 
second time to Ulundi. Lord Chehnsford assented, and 
told Colonel Harrison to take the prince with him. 

The prince had brought several horses from England, 
but one he had given away and others had fallen sick, so 
he provided himself at Newcastle with another charger, a 
handsome, spirited gray animal, but at all times hard to 
mount. The prince was delighted with his reconnoitering 
life, the simple fare, the comrade-like association, the 
camp-fire cooking, the strange country, the sight of the 
enemy, the exhilarating gallops over hill and dale, and 
the night bivouac. It made him feel, he said to Colonel 
Harrison, that he was doing soldier's work as he had never 
done before. 

Colonel Harrison, having determined to advance further 
into the enemy's country, sent back the Prince Imperial 
to Utrecht, but a few days later he was surprised by the 
reappearance of the prince, who, having obtained Lord 
Chelmsford's permission, came galloping into his camp 
to rejoin him. 

The expedition had some little skirmishes with the 
Zulus, and accomplished its work successfully. The 
prince was then attached to the quartermaster's depart- 
ment with orders in writing never to go outside the camp 
without a sufficient escort, which would always be given 
him. 

The prince's especial work was making a map of the 
country. He was an artist and a draughtsman by nature. 
As soon as one thing was done he was asking for more. 
He and Lieutenant Carey were great friends. Carey had 
been at a French school and spoke French well, although 
this was no object with the prince, who spoke English and 
French with equal fluency. 

On May 31 the prince was told he might go out and 
report on the roads, etc., for the marching of the troops 
the next day. Lieutenant Carey asked leave to go with 



338 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

him, to verify a sketch he had made the day before. 
Colonel Harrison had intended to send another officer, but 
replied : "All right — then you can look after the prince." 

Six European soldiers and six natives were to have been 
the escort, but the latter kept the party waiting, and finally 
the prince, Carey, a guide, and the six English soldiers 
started without them. This was the fatal mistake; the 
natives, with their wonderful powers of sight and hearing, 
were always considered essential to an escort in such a 
country. 

After some hours the prince and his party halted at a 
recently deserted kraal, surrounded by tall, dry grass. 
They unsaddled their horses and turned them out to graze. 
The prince and Carey began sketching. The prince was 
thought to have his great-uncle's gift of recognizing, at a 
glance, the strategic capabilities of a country. 

It was about three in the afternoon when they halted. 
In half an hour a soldier reported that he saw a Zulu on a 
neighboring height, and the prince gave the order to 
saddle the horses and mount. Some of the men were 
already in their saddles when a sudden volley was fired on 
them, out of the midst of the tall, dry grass. A scouting 
party of Zulus had been creeping stealthily up to them 
under the thick cover. The horses all started and 
swerved. The prince's reared and became restive. He 
was unable to mount. No man seems to have known what 
any of the rest were doing. One of the troopers was a 
Frenchman, who called out to the prince : " Depechez vous, 
monsieur/ " — but did not pause to help him. To be sure he 
was hardly on his horse's back himself, but flew by lying 
across his saddle. 

The prince was doing his best, but in another minute he 
was left alone. 

" He was seen endeavoring to mount his restive charger, 
running beside it, the enemy close at hand. He made one 
desperate attempt to leap into the saddle by the help of 
the holster flap; that gave way, and then he fell. The 



ENGLAND'S LITTLE WARS. 339 

charger dashed riderless past some mounted men, but, 
alas! not one turned back. About dusk they galloped 
wildly into camp with news that the brave young prince, 
for or with whom each of them should have died that 
day, lay slain upon the hillside, where he had made his 
last brave stand alone," 

Two soldiers were killed and the native who had served 
them for a guide. 

Next day a cavalry patrol was sent out to search for the 
prince's body. They found it lying about two hundred 
yards from the kraal where the party had stopped to sketch. 
The body was stripped of everything save a gold chain 
round the neck, to which hung some medallions. Could 
one of these have been the tiny fragment of the so-called 
true cross, set beneath a sapphire that had hung round 
the neck of the Emperor Charlemagne, whence it was 
taken when his grave at Aix-la-Chapelle was opened in the 
presence of the great Napoleon? Napoleon III. inherited 
it and always wore it as a talisman. 

The body had eighteen assegai wounds, all in front. 
The spurs and one sock were found near, and marks of a 
desperate resistance. 

The two white soldiers were buried, and a cairn was 
raised to mark the spot where the prince fell. His body 
was placed upon a soldier's bier of lances lashed together, 
and carried back to camp, thence to the sea-coast and 
embarked on board Her Majesty's ship Orontes, which bore 
it home. 

He was buried beside his father at Chiselhurst, and his 
statue was erected in Westminster Abbey. A year later, 
when the war was over, his unhappy mother went out to 
South Africa to visit the place where he had been slain. 
On her voyage she paused at St. Helena, and went to see 
the nineteen-years resting-place of the body of the Great 
Napoleon. A memorial had been raised by private 
soldiers on the spot where the prince was killed. The 
white stones with which it had been made were shaped by 



340 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

English soldiers in the garrison. The headstone and those 
composing the letter N were white, the others were of a 
darker color. Over these stones the long grass of South 
Africa now waves. Subsequently a beautiful white cross 
was put up on the spot by Queen Victoria. The little 
graveyard has been walled in. It is kept in good order by 
a neighboring Zulu chief, and the Zulus, when they enter 
the enclosure, make always their military salute. 

" Much has been said and written of the gracious and 
gentle side of the prince's character. Yet he also pos- 
sessed in a great degree the dash and elan of a thorough 
Frenchman. His political position was always a dignified 
one. He refused to issue any manifesto which might have 
brought a civil war on France. He had declared, how- 
ever, on the day on which he attained his majority, that, 
"If, for the eighth time, the French people should, by 
universal suffrage, declare in favor of a Napoleon for 
their ruler, he was ready to accept the trust of imperial 
power." 

He left, by will, his rights to the imperial crown to his 
cousin, Victor Napoleon, thus overlooking his father's 
cousin. Prince Jerome Napoleon, who, however, assumed 
the title of Prince Imperial. 

Lieutenant Carey was tried by a court of inquiry, which 
indignantly condemned his conduct. A court-martial, 
however, acquitted him : as the prince, and not himself, 
had been in command of the party. It is said that the 
Empress Eugenie, through the queen, used her influence to 
have him dealt with leniently. He was released from 
arrest and returned to duty. 

Cetywayo, after his capture, was not received by Sir 
Garnet Wolseley with any courtesies, but was forwarded to 
Cape Town. Here many persons saw him, although not 
some members of the family of Bishop Colenzo, who were 
very friendly to him, it being considered undesirable to 
excite him by sympathy. Here is an account by one who 
was allowed to visit him. 



ENGLAND'S LITTLE WARS. 341 

" At ten A.M. we were introduced and found Cetywayo sunning 
himself on the ramparts of the castle, and having his hair dressed. 
He shook hands with all of us, a good wholesome grip, with a 
cool hand, and a huge fist. He was sitting on a mat spread on 
the ground, and had on a red tablecloth, which partly covered 
his body and his enormous thighs. His manner was subdued 
and self-possessed, and he seemed extremely shy of being looked 
at. He said he had known in his head all along that his army 
would be beaten by the English, and did all he could to prevent 
a war. He was very angry, he said, with his young men for kill- 
ing the officers taken at Isandlwana. He had told them to bring 
to him all who wore swords. But they said they could not dis- 
tinguish them. He had been measured for a suit of clothes and 
a pair of boots, which subsequently, however, he hated to wear, 
a good deal appalling propriety in this respect when he arrived 
in England." 

There he was treated with consideration and kindness, 
and had a personal interview with the queen. " No cap- 
tive," says Mr. George M. Theal, "ever conducted himself 
more decorously than the fallen chief of the Zulus." 

"Zululand was divided by Sir Garnet Wolseley into 
thirteen districts, each of which was placed under the 
government of a chief independent of all the others, and 
nominally guided by the advice of a single British resi- 
dent. But this plan of settlement did not answer, and in 
1883 Cetywayo was allowed to return to his own land. In 
England, where he was very well received, he had, by his 
sensible observations and dignified deportment, acquired 
the favorable opinion of every one with whom he came in 
contact. It was thought that, after the experience he had 
gone through, he might, without imprudence, be allowed 
to return to his own country, upon making his promise to 
observe conditions that would prevent his power from 
becoming dangerous again. Some of his people welcomed 
him back, but a larger part adhered to a rival chief named 
Sibepu. War at once broke out between these chiefs, and 
when Cetywayo died the following year, it continued 
between his son and Sibepu. But the state of confusion 
and strife became such that, in 1887, what remained of 



342 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY, 

Zululand was, of necessity, annexed to Great Britain. It 
was divided into six districts, and a European magistrate, 
supported by soldiers, now has charge of each." 

It was natural that the son of Cetywayo should object to 
this disposal of his country. He endeavored to create 
disturbances, and it became evident to the English that 
order could not be maintained while he remained in the 
country. He was, therefore, in 1889 sent, with two other 
chiefs, to reside at St. Helena. 

The Zulu war having terminated, England had before 
long to deal with the Boers. The' Dutch of the Transvaal 
were wholly averse to the annexation to the British Empire 
that had been proclaimed four years before. Their first 
governor. Sir Theophilus Sheptsone, they personally liked, 
but when he was succeeded by Sir Owen Lanyon, a man 
of a haughty, unconciliating disposition, the general feel- 
ing gained ground that if the Dutch settlers could not 
recover their independence by fair means, they must 
commit their cause to God, and take up arms. Their 
ex-president. Burgers, addressing a sympathetic crowd of 
his countrymen, exclaimed: "But one heart beats in the 
breasts of Dutchmen from Table Mountain to the banks 
of the Limpopo ! " At that time the descendants of the 
Dutch and the French Huguenot settlers outnumbered the 
British settlers about eight to one. The proportion is 
now the other way. The Africanders descended from the 
Huguenots have been always treated by Dutch Boers with 
great respect, a feeling that, at the time of which I now 
write, by no means extended to Englishmen, who were 
known to the Dutch only as soldiers, meddlesome adminis- 
trators, rough navvies, impudent shop-keepers, or washers 
in the diamond fields discovered in the Orange Free State 
in 1870. The favor shown by the English to the blacks 
was most odious in the eyes of the Boers, while, on the 
other hand, the Kafirs professed much devotion to the 
Great White Queen, whom they called their "mother." 

When, in 1880, the Boers received intelligence that Mr. 



ENGLAND'S LITTLE WARS, 343 

Gladstone, who, in his Mid-Lothian speeches, had de- 
nounced their annexation as unjust, was the Queen's Prime 
Minister, they naturally concluded he would give them back 
their independence; not understanding that party speeches 
made before a general election might prove very inconven- 
ient to a ministry that considered itself pledged to act upon 
them when in power. For a time excitement in the Trans- 
vaal calmed down, and the farmers patiently waited for the 
fulfilment of words that they looked on in the light of 
promises. ' 

Sir Garnet Wolseley and a large part of his soldiers were 
called home, and the administration of the Transvaal, civil 
and military, was transferred to Sir George Colley. 

Then, when it was known that Mr. Gladstone declined 
to pull down the British flag in the Transvaal, matters came 
to a crisis. A great meeting of the Boers took place; 
three of their number, Kruger, Pretorius, and Joubert, 
were formed into a triumvirate to conduct the government, 
and the volksraad resumed its functions as the supreme 
legi,slative power. This took place December 16, 1880. 
The English colors were hauled down and the flag of the 
South African Republic was hoisted in their place. 

Under General Joubert, a leader of French Huguenot 
descent, the Boers, with great bravery, attacked English 
troops in every direction. Disaster after disaster came 
upon the English arms. 

An attack on part of the 94th regiment took place, in 
which the English were massacred or captured almost to a 
man. There was an English stronghold in the Transvaal 
called Standiton, which it was very important to hold till 
help could arrive from England. An English officer who 
belonged to the 94th regiment, but was not with it when 
his comrades were attacked, was sent to "hold the fort " as 
long as possible. He subsequently published a narrative of 
the defence of Standiton in three very interesting papers in 
"Blackwood's Magazine," called "Besieged in the Trans- 
vaal." The Dutch farmers considered themselves to be 



344 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

fighting in a righteous cause, and with the blessing of 
Heaven. They would kneel down on the field after a vic- 
tory and return thanks to God for preservation and success. 

Standiton stood not far from the river Vaal, the boundary 
between the Transvaal and Orange Free State. Day after 
day for two months, i.e. from December 23 to the begin- 
ning of March, the little garrison expected the arrival of 
an English column to their relief. But the column had 
been repulsed. 

On February 20, 1881, Sir George CoUey, in an attempt 
to come to their help, had taken position on a height 
called Majuba Hill with a little force of about six hundred. 

The Dutch charged straight up the hill in the face of the 
enemy. The troops of Sir George Colley were seized with 
a panic, and he himself was killed. The loss of the Eng- 
lish was ninety-two killed, one hundred and thirty-four 
wounded, and thirty-nine taken prisoners, while the Dutch 
farmers lost only one man killed and five wounded. 

Matters grew very serious. Orange Free State and Natal 
were greatly excited, when President Brand of Orange 
Free State offered his mediation, and an armistice was 
concluded early in March, which permitted the English to 
send provisions to Standiton and two other besieged places. 

Finally a peace was concluded. The Transvaal was to 
be an independent republic, under the suzerainty of Queen 
Victoria, whose resident agent was to conduct all matters 
relating to its foreign policy, i.e. disputes with neigh- 
boring states, or Kafir tribes, but was not to interfere in 
any way with its domestic government. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

DIAMOND FIELDS AND GOLD MINES. 

IT seems impossible to understand the past or present 
history of English power in South Africa without some 
knowledge of the geography of its various states, and of 
their present different forms of government. 

First there is Cape Colony, the presiding state, which, 
ever since 1852, has had its own parliament, but not 
until 1872 a cabinet responsible to that body. It has, 
be^des, a governor appointed by the crown, the office 
being held at present by Sir Hercules Robinson, who is, 
besides. Imperial High Commissioner for South Africa. 
There is a small property qualification required for voters. 
A man who can sign his name, write his address, and has 
property worth seventy-five pounds, or a salary to that 
amount, can vote for his representative in the House of 
Assembly without regard to race, color, or condition. The 
native races in Cape Colony are the Bushmen, the Hotten- 
tots, and the Bantu or Kafirs; the two former races are 
dying out, in consequence of association with civilization, 
but the latter thrives. In 1865 a large territory called 
Kaffraria was united to Cape Colony; and other colonies 
have been "taken over," as it is called, by degrees; that 
is, they become crown colonies, and send representatives 
to the Cape Town parliament; previously they were British 
protectorates, that is, their own chiefs and headmen carried 
on home rule, subject to interference by a British resident, 
who kept the chiefs in order. Before, however, a province 
became a protectorate, it formed part of the British 

345 



346 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

"sphere of influence," extending to the line of limitation 
marked out by treaty with other European powers. No 
foreign power may intrude upon this " sphere of influence," 
but it is expected that Great Britain or its chartered com- 
pany of South Africa, to whom it has delegated its powers 
in this "sphere," will visibly establish its authority within 
its bounds as speedily as possible. 

North of Cape Colony is the Orange River, which is the 
southern boundary of the German " sphere of influence " 
in Western Africa. 

East of German territory, and north of Orange River, lies 
British Bechuanaland, which is under three kinds of gov- 
ernment; the southern part is a crown colony; the centre 
a protectorate; the north, containing Mashonaland and 
Matabeleland, is a "sphere of influence," given over to the 
chartered company, which is doing its utmost to develop 
its resources. 

Cape Colony is washed on the west by the Atlantic, and 
southeast by the Indian Ocean, but on its east side just 
south of Natal is a small native state, Pondoland, which 
is enclosed on three sides by British territory, and on its 
remaining border has a seacoast with a fine port called St. 
Johns, which was reserved by treaty to Cape Colony. An 
English resident is stationed there. The present chief of 
Pondoland is a young man whose grandfather was one of 
the most savage tyrants on record, even in Africa. 

North of Cape Colony, on the eastern coast, is Natal, a 
state which, in 1893, acquired "responsible" government. 
The Drakenberg chain of mountains runs down this part 
of Africa, one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles from 
the sea, and forms the western boundary of Natal. The 
climate of Natal is tropical for about fifteen miles from 
the coast; but beyond this it becomes temperate as the 
land rises in a series of terraces, ending in a lofty table-land. 

North of Natal, with a long coast line but no seaport, 
lies Zululand, now under British protection. To its north, 
on the borders of the Portuguese "sphere of influence," 



DIAMOND FIELDS AND GOLD MINES. 347 

lies a small district called Anatongaland or Tongaland; 
while wedged into the South African Republic (or Trans- 
vaal) is Swaziland, which has recently been annexed to the 
Dutch Republic. 

Hemmed in by Tongaland, Zululand, and Swaziland, to 
which it afforded an exit to Delagoa Bay, is a tiny strip of 
land which has cost diplomatists much trouble. Till lately 
it was occupied by three chiefs, one of them a woman. 
Within a few months it has been assigned to England, to the 
great annoyance of the Boers, who wanted to find an outlet 
through it to the sea, their country lying entirely inland. 

Portuguese territory in East Africa, with a long coast 
line, lies north and east of the " sphere of British influ- 
ence " and east of the South African Republic. It pos- 
sesses Delagoa Bay, which receives the Limpopo and other 
rivers. Lorenzo Marquez, a fine seaport, is on this bay. 
We used to call the country Mozambique and Monomotapa. 

West of the Drakenberg, and north of the river Vaal, 
lies the Transvaal or South African Republic, whose largest 
town is Johannesburg, but its capital is Pretoria. 

South of the Vaal, and north of the Orange River, which 
has its rise in the Drakenberg, is another little Dutch 
Republic — Orange Free State. Its capital is Bloem- 
fontein. 

West of Orange Free State, lying north of the Orange 
River, is Griqualand West, with its capital Kimberley 
(Griqualand East is part of Kaffraria). Then north of 
Cape Colony, west of Portuguese territory, and east of the 
German sphere in Southwest Africa, is that sphere of 
British influence, accorded in 1891 to the chartered com- 
pany of South Africa, whose chief town is Salisbury. 

It is with the diamond fields of Griqualand West, 
and the gold mines of the Transvaal, Mashonaland, and 
Matabeleland, that this chapter concerns itself.^ 

i It may assist the reader's memory to have a brief summary of the 
twelve divisions of South Africa : — 

I. Cape Colony. Capital, Cape Town. Seaports, Cape Town, Port 
Elizabeth, and East London. 



348 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

One day, on a farm in the northern part of Cape Colony, 
in 1867, a child was observed to be playing with a remark- 
ably brilliant pebble, which a trader, to whom it was 
shown as a curiosity, suspected to be a gem of much value. 
It was sent for examination to Grahamstown, and pro- 
nounced to be a diamond of twenty-one carats' weight, and 
its value five hundred pounds. Search was immediately 
commenced in the neighborhood by several persons in odd 
hours, and soon another, though much smaller, diamond 
was found. Then a third was picked up on the bank of 
the Vaal River, and attention was directed to that locality. 

" During 1868 several diamonds were found, though as yet no 
one was applying himself seriously to looking for diamonds. 
In March, 1869, the Star of South Africa (now in possession of 
Lady Dudley) was obtained from a Hottentot, who had been in 
possession of it a long time, without the least idea of its value, 
except as a powerful charm. It was a magnificent brilliant of 
eighty-three carats^ weight, when uncut, and was readily sold for 
eleven thousand pounds. From all parts of South Africa men 
now began to make their way to the banks of the lower Vaal to 
search for diamonds, and trains of wagons, conveying provisions 
and goods, were to be seen on every wagon track leading to the 
interior. Some of the diggers were fortunate in amassing wealth, 
but this was by no means the case with all of them. Diamond 
digging, in fact, was like a great lottery, with a few prizes and 
many blanks. But it had a powerful attraction, and shortly many 
hundreds of adventurers from England and America were engaged 

II. Pondoland. Seaport, St. Johns (annexed to Cape Colony). 

III. Natal. Capital, Pietermaritzburg. Seaport, Durban. Other 
towns, Utrecht and Newcastle. 

IV. Zululand. Chi»f station, Etshowe. 
V. Tongaland. 

VI. Swaziland. 

VII. South African Republic (or Transvaal). Capital, Pretoria. 
Other towns, Johannesburg, Heidelberg, and Barberton. 
VIII. Orange Free State. Capital, Bloemfontein. 
IX. Basutoland. 

X. Griqualand West. Capital, Kimberley. 
XL British Bechuanaland. Capital, Vryberg. Other town, Mafe- 
king. 

XII. The Protectorate of Bechuanaland, and sphere of British influ- 
ence, including Mashonaland and Matabeleland. Chief town, Salisbury. 



DIAMOND FIELDS AND GOLD MINES, 349 

in it. The quiet, simple, homely life of the South African farm 
and village in olden times — rarely disturbed, except by wars with 
Kafir tribes —had passed away forever, and a bustling, struggling, 
restless mode of existence was rapidly taking its place. The 
wealth of the country was enormously increased ; for diamonds 
soon attained a high place in the exports ; but it may be ques- 
tioned if the people were, on the whole, as happy as they were 
before. . . . After a while much richer diamond mines than 
those along the Vaal were discovered on some farms to the 
southward, and most of the diggers removed to them. The 
public offices of the district in which they were situated were at a 
considerable distance, but as soon as arrangements could be made 
by the Dutch government a resident landrost was appointed, a 
postofiice was set up, and some policemen were engaged." 

Such is Mr. Theal's account of the first years succeeding 
a discovery that created in South African life a social 
revolution. 

It was soon found that the richest mine was on the 
spot now called Kimberley, in a tract of land beyond the 
Orange River, whose possession was disputed between a 
Griqua chief and the Orange Free State. The Griqua 
chief, named Waterboer, claimed the land, but sold his 
claim to the English. Orange Free State denied Water- 
boer' s claim, and the Transvaal Republic also professed to 
have an interest in the matter. 

Not many months before, in what was called the Con- 
vention of Aliwal, the English government was supposed 
to have pledged itself to interfere with no lands further 
north than the Orange River. But circumstances in politics 
appear to alter cases. An immense, rough, lawless popu- 
lation began a mad rush to the great mine. Almost all 
these men were of English birth, and it seemed necessary 
that the strong hand of England should be stretched out to 
keep them in order. By an arbitration which the Dutch 
party held to be unfair, the land in dispute was adjudged to 
England. It received the name of Griqualand West, and 
was soon a British protectorate. 

The whole Dutch population of South Africa was made 
furiously angry. They accused the English of having 



350 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

violated the Treaty of Aliwal before the ink was dry. The 
old dogged animosity of the Dutch to the English was 
revived in all its bitterness. Orange Free State refused 
to take any part in settling the boundaries of the newly 
annexed British province. The native tribes became 
insubordinate, and confusion reigned. 

Meantime, diamonds were dug out in enormous quanti- 
ties, but the natives, who worked in the diggings with the 
whites, expended their earnings in rifles and ammunition. 
A brisk traffic in powder, balls, and guns was carried on 
by them with other natives. It was thus that the Zulus 
got the arms with which they fought the British at Isandl- 
wana. The quiet possession of Griqualand West was 
finally secured by an offer on the part of the English gov- 
ernment to pay ninety thousand pounds to Orange Free 
State in satisfaction of its claim, and the country, in 1880, 
was definitively annexed to Cape Colony. 

After this offer was accepted, and the public debt of 
Orange Free State was largely reduced by the sum paid 
into its treasury, the sore feeling entertained on the sub- 
ject began to die away. The burghers could not but 
reflect that perhaps it was better for them, on the whole, 
to be relieved from the responsibility of keeping order 
among the diggers. Besides this, they had discovered 
other mines in their own undoubted territory, and hoped 
to profit from English enterprise in various ways. 

"Since this settlement of the question the Free State 
has enjoyed constant peace, and no part of South Africa 
has made greater progress. Roads, bridges, and good 
public buildings have been constructed, and an excellent 
system of public schools is maintained by the govern- 
ment." 

Kimberley, which can now be reached by railroad from 
the seaboard, is forty-two hundred feet above the sea. 
After leaving the immediate coast the land rises gradually, 
till, after ascending a ridge three or four thousand feet 
high, the traveller, who expects thence to descend into a 



DIAMOND FIELDS AND GOLD MINES. 35 I 

valley, finds himself on a wide, sandy plain which formed, 
possibly, a vast lake in bygone ages. 

Kimberley mine, formerly called New Rush, obviously 
from the rush of diggers who flocked to it in 1870, has 
now been excavated to the extent of thirty-five or forty 
acres. That and three other mines, the De Beers mine, 
Bultfontein, and Der Toits Pan, are owned by a great 
syndicate which has expended vast sums on labor and 
machinery. In 1891 the excavation in Kimberley mine 
had gone seven hundred feet below the surface. In its 
original state, before this mine was hollowed out, the land 
had been staked off in a variety of small claims. These 
were bought up by companies who introduced steam 
machinery. The diamonds are found embedded in what 
is called blue rock. The toughness of this rock necessi- 
tates the use of dynamite, and the heavy blasting is described 
as startling. The hours for blasting are midday and after 
sunset, when all men are out of the mine. "Then, with 
deafening roar after roar, begins the fusilade. Masses of 
the ground heave with a burst of smoke, tremble and 
crumble to pieces. For ten minutes the great noise flaps 
and buffets round the chasm. Then the smoke clears 
away, and for twenty-four hours there is peace. Enough 
' blue ' has been loosened for the next day's work." 

"All search for diamonds is done above ground. The 
labor in the mine is simply to attend to sending up the 
* reef, ' that is, the fragments of blue rock shattered by 
the blast, which is carried to the surface in iron buckets 
hauled on wire ropes by water power. 

" When brought to the surface the ' reef ' is tipped on 
to the depositing floor, where it undergoes a variety of 
processes before it is ready for washing. Finally, what are 
called dry sortings are deposited on tables, and the dia- 
monds are picked out by hands, black and white, under 
the strictest surveillance. The pretty red garnets and 
other pebbles are swept aside, and the diamonds are 
dropped into a sort of locked poor-box, until, finally, its 



352 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

contents, all classified and valued, lie on the office table of 
the company on their way to impregnable safes." 

Unlawfully to possess an uncut diamond subjects the 
individual to very severe penalties, the maximum being 
imprisonment with hard labor for fifteen years. But these 
penalties having proved insufficient to suppress what are 
called the I. D. B. or Illicit Diamond Buyers, the "com- 
pound system " is now employed. Each company has a 
large yard or compound, one side of which is enclosed 
by buildings, the other by sheet-iron walls ten feet high. 
This compound has an opening into the mine. In it the 
native workers sleep, eat, bathe, and receive medical 
attendance, should they be sick. And during the time 
they engage to serve — that is, two or three months — 
they are never allowed to go out of it. Of course on their 
departure they are rigorously searched; so, too, each day, 
as they come from the mine, when each man undergoes, 
naked, a searching of mouth, ears, nose, hair, and arm- 
pits. So rigorously is the search made that it is almost 
impossible to conceal a diamond. 

"The largest diamond up to 1891 found in South Africa 
is the * Porter Rhodes,' belonging to the De Beers Com- 
pany. Before cutting it weighed four hundred and four 
carats; after cutting, one hundred and fifty carats. It is 
a purely white diamond, and worth sixty thousand pounds. 
In the Bultfontein mine one weighing one hundred and 
fifty carats was discovered; and stones from this mine, 
though they average a size smaller than those from the 
other mines, are said to excel in color." 

The declared value of the diamonds exported in 1892, 
as officially reported, was ;^3,9o6,992.^ The purely 

1 " The production of the four diamond mines at Kimberley was, in 
the year 1890, nineteen million dollars, and the yield of the Kimberley 
mine alone has, in fourteen years, — 1871 to 1885, — probably exceeded 
one hundred million dollars in value. The total export of diamonds 
from the Cape from the date of their discovery until the present, 1893, 
has probably exceeded three hundred and fifty million dollars. The 
annual expenditure in procuring the product is now five million dollars, 



DIAMOND FIELDS AND GOLD MINES. 353 

white diamonds are rare at Kimberley; amber-colored, 
pinkish, lilac, blueish, and black are abundant. The 
"dry diggings " do not often produce the best white stones. 

"The question which agitates the anxious diamond 
digger is to know how the blue rock, the diamondiferous 
deposit, came there. And this is to him a practical ques- 
tion. Does the 'blue' come from below? And if from 
below, from what unknown depth does it come ? Or has 
the 'blue ' entered the mine from above, running down 
in a muddy stream carrying, besides the diamonds, shells, 
and pieces of carbonized wood along with it? The most 
prevalent impression is that the diamonds are the result 
of enormous pressure and of the effect of fire upon metals 
in the depths of the earth. Yet on this theory it is hard 
to account for the presence of delicate shells and carbon- 
ized wood which could not have resisted extreme heat." 

Kimberley is a large and flourishing town, abounding 
in hotels, saloons, club-houses, and billiard-tables. The 
country round it for thirty miles is bare of trees, all 
having been cut down to feed the steam machinery. "At 
its Diamond Exchange you meet men of all ranks : officers 
of the army and navy, always foremost on any field of 
adventure; university men and Eton and Harrow men, 
acting as time-keepers, or secretaries on the works. At 
Kimberley there is now little or no prospecting by indi- 
viduals; all diamond workers are employed by the com- 
panies. The wages for a Zulu are one pound a week, 
that of a white worker five pounds." 

Kimberley is a city of one-storied houses built of corru- 
gated iron. The church, the clubs, the hotels — everything 

and the exportation is limited to four or four and a half millions of 
carats annually, to prevent a depreciation in price. The advantages to 
the Cape Colony and to the commercial world at large of the diamond 
industry, are the employment of native labor and the demonstration of 
the native's willingness to work, which so many still doubt, the teaching 
of habits of industry, and the steady advance of civilization into hith- 
erto unexplored regions." — George R. Stetson, Washington, D.C., 
Liberia Bulletin, November, 1893. 
■ 2 A 



354 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

inhabited by man or beast — are roofed and often walled 
with corrugated iron. Young trees are being planted 
round the houses to repair the devastation of past years. 
At one time Kimberley was sadly destitute of water; an 
ample supply is now brought from the Vaal River. 

From six to eight every morning the market-place is 
thronged with the ox wagons of burly Dutch farmers, 
bringing products of all kinds from Orange Free State 
and from the neighboring country. The wagons of South 
Africa are drawn by spans of eighteen or twenty oxen 
harnessed to each wagon, in charge of Kafir drivers. Daily, 
numbers of these wagons bring logs and branches of wild 
olive and camel' s-thorn trees for the use of the steam 
engines. 

Individual enterprise in diamond digging, though extinct 
at Kimberley, still flourishes for seventy miles along the 
banks of the river Vaal. There the operations of the 
diamond seekers are much like those of the old gold 
washers with pick and pan in California. The average 
find of a Vaal diamond digger is estimated at one hundred 
and twenty-five pounds a year, about six hundred and fifty 
dollars. Sometimes hundreds of " loads " of earth will not 
afford a single diamond; then, perhaps, a rich pocket is 
found under some great boulder, and a handful of diamonds 
is turned out. The gross yield of diamonds from the river 
throughout the year remains pretty much the same, over 
four thousand pounds a month. 

There are, however, advantages enjoyed on the Vaal by 
the individual prospector. The climate is healthy, living 
cheap, and other expenses far lighter than at Kimberley. 
The Vaal is a deep stream, and, except in case of a pro- 
longed drought, there is little chance of prospecting in 
its bed, where it is thought a great deposit of diamonds 
might be found. 

Bloemfontein, the capital of Orange Free State, is thus 
described by Lady Frederick Cavendish, who, in 1890, 
made a visit to Kimberley to see her clerical brothers, one 



DIAMOND FIELDS AND GOLD MINES. 355 

of whom was settled at Kimberley, the other at Bloem- 
fontein. 

" Passing from Kimberley, with its money making and 
diamond market and smart shops and '' go-aheadness, ' into 
the Free State, with its undulating desert solitudes, its 
wagons with spans of oxen, trekking at a mile an hour, and 
its scattered homesteads, was like driving out of the nine- 
teenth century into the Book of Genesis." 

In 1 88 1 the Transvaal, after having been for four years 
subject to England, was given back to its Dutch adminis- 
trators, and has been since that time the South African 
Republic, a title which seems rather to intrude upon the 
Orange Free State, which is likewise a republic in South 
Africa. It contained, in 1881, one thousand English 
inhabitants to eight thousand of Dutch extraction. The 
proportions are now reversed, the English numbering eight 
to one; while Johannesburg, its chief city, promises to 
be second only to Cape Town in a few years. 

"About eighteen years ago Sir Hercules Robinson (the 
present governor of Cape Colony), when on a visit to the 
Transvaal, camped out on a site near the present town of 
Johannesburg and remarked to two gentlemen on his staff : 
' If I were in Australia I should say that I was standing on 
a gold field '; so similar were the soil and the lay of the 
land to the gold regions in Australia with which he was 
familiar. He proved a true prophet, and on that very spot 
is now gathered a great array of diggers and miners, bring- 
ing gold to the surface in ever-increasing quantity." 

In 1885, four years after the re-establishment of the 
republic, very rich and extensive gold fields were dis- 
covered in a range of hills which are the watershed 
between the Vaal and Limpopo rivers. It had been 
long known that there was some gold in the Transvaal, but 
the supposed quantity was not sufficient to attract atten- 
tion from the outside world. But the production of gold 
went on, so much increasing, that the export of gold for 
the year ending December 31, 1893, was worth nearly four 



356 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

and a half million pounds sterling.^ The country has, also, 
iron in abundance, silver, lead, copper, and several other 
minerals. 

After the discovery of gold the prosperity of the country 
largely increased, and its revenue has far exceeded its 
expectation. Villages have sprung up, telegraph lines are 
constructed, rivers have been bridged, and roads opened. 

Mr. Froude, in "Lectures on South Africa," delivered 
before the Philosophical Institute in Edinburgh, January 6 
and 9, i88o, thus speaks of the character of the Boers: — ^ 

" The South African Republic is larger than the United King- 
dom. Its soil is admirable, its mineral wealth is as varied as it 
is boundless. Scattered over the surface are eight thousand or 
nine thousand Dutch households. The Transvaal Boer, when he 
settles on his land, intends it for the home of his family. His 
estate is from six thousand to twenty thousand acres, and his 
wealth is in his sheep and cattle. He comes on the ground in 
his wagon. He builds sheds or pens for his stock. He encloses 
three or four acres of garden, carrying a stream of water through 
it. He plants peaches, apricots, oranges, lemons, figs, apples, 
pears, olives, and almonds. In a few years they are all in full 
bearing. The garden being planted, he builds a modest house. 
In his hall he places his old chairs and tables, which his father 
brought from the Colony ; his sofa, strung with strips of antelope 
hide, and spread with antelope skins. He has generally but one 

1 Mr. Barnato, at a meeting of the Johannesburg Water Works 
Estate and Exploration Company, held in London, December 5, 1894, 
said : *' It may be a bold prophecy, but I am prepared here and now to 
make it, that I should not be surprised if within the next two years the 
output of the Transvaal mines alone should, instead of two hundred 
thousand ounces, be three hundred thousand to three hundred and fifty 
thousand ounces per month, equivalent to sixty million dollars or sixty- 
five million dollars a year." — The Statist, London, England. Never- 
theless, of sixty-five companies in the Transvaal, but twenty-five have 
declared dividends within three years. They are using all their earn- 
ings, which are great, to put in additional machinery. 

2 We all know Mr. Froude to have been a special pleader for 
any cause in which he was interested. His character of the Dutch 
farmers is corroborated, however, by all who know them; but his 
bitter arraignment of the policy and methods of the English govern- 
ment in South Africa is in his own peculiar style and with all his usual 
force. 



DIAMOND FIELDS AND GOLD MINES. 35/ 

book, — a large-clasped Bible, with the births, deaths, and mar- 
riages of his family for half a dozen generations on the fly-leaf. 
He breaks up fifty acres of adjoining land for his corn and green 
crops. There he lives, and begets a huge family ; huge in all 
senses, for he has often a dozen children, and his boys grow to 
the size of Patagonians. When a son or daughter marries, 
another house is built for them on the property ; fresh land is 
brought under tillage ; and the Transvaal is thus being gradually 
filled up, in patriarchal fashion, by a people who know nothing 
of the world and care nothing for it ; who never read a news- 
paper ; whose one idea beyond their own concerns is hatred of 
the English ; but who are civil and hospitable to English trav- 
ellers and sportsmen. They are a proud, stubborn race; free, 
and resolute to remain free ; made of the same stuff as their 
ancestors who drove the Spaniards out of Holland. I stayed 
with more than one of them. The beds were scrupulously 
clean; the food plain and abundant. Before and after meals 
there is a long grace. The day begins with a psalm, sung by 
the girls. They are strict Calvinists, ignorant, obstinate, and 
bigoted. But even Calvinism has its merits. They are, I sup- 
pose, not unlike what Scotch farmers were two hundred years 
ago. I inquired much about the slavery said to prevail there. 
I never saw a slave, or anything like one." 

The coach drive from Kimberley to Johannesburg is two 
hundred and eighty miles. It takes three days to accom- 
plish it in an old-fashioned country stage, drawn by ten 
mules and two horses. Johannesburg is an even more 
wonderful place than the newest of our Western cities. In 
1886 the land on which it stands was a solitary, silent 
plain, with (as Sir Hercules Robinson believed) a proba- 
bility of gold beneath its surface. The Dutch govern- 
ment in that year planted its flagstaff in the waste, and 
proclaimed the territory a gold field. In 1889 this is a 
traveller's description of the place : — 

"For a new town, named only in 1886, there was a sur- 
prising manifestation of Old- World liveliness. It almost 
seemed as though a handful of miners had bought a town 
ready made, with streets, squares, and public buildings 
complete; and that some great carrying company had 
brought it over sea and land and delivered it in a habitable 



358 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

form, with the electric light laid on, the beds made, and 
the corks drawn for dinner." 

In 1854 gold had been first remarked in the northern 
portion of the Transvaal. But it was not till 1884 that 
gold in that region began to be much talked about. One 
man averred that his assays showed nine hundred and thir- 
teen ounces of gold to the ton. The Dutch government 
sent out officers to inspect the gold fields. "The line 
of reef was satisfactorily determined. Government de- 
cided to proclaim the land on nine farms a gold field. 
There was a rush of diggers and speculators, traders and 
tradesmen, and in a twinkling the town of Johannesburg 
rose, as it were, out of the earth. To the farmers, whose 
land was thus appropriated, was reserved the right to take 
up for themselves a pro rata area according to the size of 
their farms, and in all instances their homesteads were 
secured to them. The rest of the ground was then thrown 
open at the rate of one pound per claim a month, one-half 
of which went to the farmers who had owned the land, and 
one-half to the government." 

The discovery and development of the gold fields came 
at a happy moment for the newly restored South African 
Republic. Its financial condition in 1884 was so bad that 
the gravest fears were expressed by local politicians lest 
their country should drift into bankruptcy; again be 
obliged to seek the protection of England, and so lose 
their regained and dearly cherished independence. 

The Dutch farmers, too, have thriven by the gold seek- 
ing and the influx of English money. "Many have 
received for their farms sums of money they had never 
dreamed they would possess. But the Boer farmer has 
little liking for the bustle, stir, and excitement raised 
around him by speculation and by labor; when he makes 
a large sum by the sale of his land he does as his father 
did before him. He harnesses up his ox teams and goes 
away to some unsettled region to look for land, where he 
may make a quiet home, undisturbed by the commercial 
spirit of the nineteenth century." 



DIAMOND FIELDS AND GOLD MINES. 359 

Gold-mining, however, in the South African fields has 
been too often disappointing. 

"The gold is there," says the correspondent of the "Pall 
Mall Gazette," "not in chunks to be had for the asking; 
not in richness which would repay the cost of bringing 
machinery in balloons; but in such quantities as mankind 
will not readily give up the hope of winning from its rocky 
envelope. ... At present (the letter was published in 
189 1) only half the gold in the ore is got out, and even 
that half cannot be got out at a decent profit." 

All expenses are enormous, especially the cost of trans- 
port. "The gold industry," it has been said, "is crushed 
under the ox wagon of the Boer." The gold region lies 
nearly three hundred miles beyond a railway terminus, and 
from eight hundred to one thousand miles from a shipping 
port. Goods forwarded from Port Elizabeth were some- 
times, in 1893, three months in reaching Pretoria. This 
city, an old Dutch town, is the seat of government, and 
of the parliament or volksraad. The present executive of 
the republic is President Kruger, who is serving his second 
term, and is deservedly popular. He is now about sixty- 
five years old, and was born in Cape Colony. His history 
is that of most Africanders in the Transvaal. When ten 
years old he trekked with his father and mother to Orange 
Free State; thence to Natal; and finally to the Transvaal, 
where the family ultimately settled. At seventeen he was 
appointed assistant field cornet, and at twenty became 
commandant of a district. Thirteen years later he was 
created commandant general of the Transvaal, and, under 
President Burgers, became vice-president, being finally 
elected president in 1883. 

We may not unreasonably ask why no railway was at once 
projected to connect the gold fields with the sea-coast, and 
we shall receive the reply that the Boer farmers strongly 
objected to having their republic crossed by English lines 
of railway. It would be destructive, they thought, to their 
lucrative monopoly of hauling by ox teams; and to them 



36o EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

it would bring no compensating profit. There were miners 
and speculators enough in the country, in their opinion, 
and it was not Boer policy to offer those who were there 
facilities, or to bring in more of them. 

But since 1891 a company, called the Netherlands South 
African Company, has found aid and favor with both the 
Portuguese and South African Republicans. A line from 
Pretoria to the Vaal River, passing Johannesburg, is now 
open. At its terminus on the Vaal it connects with the 
great trunk line through the Orange Free State, whence it 
branches south by three lines to Cape Town, Port Eliza- 
beth, and East London. This great trunk line has, by the 
British Chartered Company of South Africa, been carried 
north to Kimberley and Mafeking, whence it is now under 
construction to Salisbury, the most important British station 
in Matabeleland. There is also a railway in the Trans- 
vaal from Johannesburg to "the Springs," passing over a 
great coal region which supplies fuel to the city and to the 
quartz-crushing machinery along a route of fifty-five miles. 

A very important piece of railway is being constructed 
between Port Beira, a Portuguese town on Sofala Bay, and 
Salisbury. Natal, also, has her railroad, which is to con- 
nect her port of Durban with countries in the interior, 
which, ten years since, were accessible only by teams of 
oxen. 

Much of the recent development of South Africa is due 
to the British South African Company, which received its 
royal charter in 1889. This charter entrusted it with the 
development of the extensive regions lying south of the 
Zambesi. These, by the recent Anglo-German convention 
of 1890, which apportioned unappropriated parts of Africa 
to European powers as "spheres of influence," have been 
proclaimed British territory, and are being now developed 
rapidly. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



RHODESIA. 



I HAVE called this chapter by no recognized geographical 
name, but by one which newspaper writers and others 
apply frequently to the vast country in which Mr. Cecil 
John Rhodes is now prominent, and which he earnestly 
desires to consolidate into one powerful South African 
Empire. 

Mr. Rhodes is the fourth son of the Rev. F. W. Rhodes, 
vicar of Bishop Stortford, Hertfordshire. He was born 
July 5, 1853, and is, therefore, little more than forty years 
old. He went to Oxford, but broke down in health before 
he took his degree. Then, being ordered to South Africa 
to check pulmonary trouble, he joined his eldest brother, 
who was a colonist in NataL On the discovery of the 
diamond fields in Griqualand West both brothers joined 
the rush, and Cecil Rhodes embarked his few pounds of 
capital in what appeared to him to be profitable schemes. 
His ventures were all successful, because judicious, and in 
a little more than four years he was worth, it is said, a 
million of pounds sterling. Satisfied with this large fort- 
une, and with his health fully restored, he returned to 
England, and, having studied hard even while actively 
engaged in practical life, he went to Oxford and obtained 
his degree. 

He then went back to South Africa determined to prove 
himself a financier and an administrator. He organized a 
powerful diamond and gold-mining syndicate; was elected 
to the Cape Parliament as member for Kimberley; and, in 

361 



362 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

1890, accepted the premiership. Before this, however, he 
had accompanied General Gordon, who, during his brief 
stay at the Cape, made a campaign into the Basuto country. 

"The two men, with strong fundamental similarities 
and divergencies, could not fail to be attracted by each 
other, though they were not the kind of men to share 
opinions upon each and every topic. Now and then, 
doubtless, discussion would wax warm. 'You are the sort 
of man, ' the general impatiently said to Mr. Rhodes on 
one of these occasions, 'who will never approve of anything 
you don't arrange yourself.' But Gordon appears to have 
had a great liking for, and a high opinion of, Rhodes, for 
before he started on his last mission to the Soudan, he 
wrote to him, asking the young politician — Mr. Rhodes 
was then in the Legislative Assembly — to join him as his 
private secretary." 

It may be well to add here that Mr. Rhodes emerged 
from the somewhat sordid milieu of Kimberley finance with 
the reputation of a man of incorruptible honesty, whose 
promise was a bond always strictly fulfilled. 

Day after day in Cape Colony his influence increased. 
He dreamed again the dream of Lord Carnarvon and Lord 
Beaconsfield, i.e. the close federation of the various states 
of South Africa — and their possible future absorption into 
one system of government. "His vast scheme of South 
African unification soon began to bear fruit, and the colony, 
almost to a man, was behind him." 

The mining syndicate, of which he became the head, is 
known under the title of the Consolidated De Beers Mines. 
In 1889 the British South African Company received a 
royal charter, entrusting it with the development of the 
extensive regions lying to the south of the Zambesi, which 
the year before had been proclaimed British territory. 

The chairman of this company is the Duke of Abercorn; 
his coadjutor is the Duke of Fife, the Prince of Wales's 
son-in-law. Mr. Rhodes is its most active managing 
director. He is a tall, stalwart, broad-shouldered man, 




CECIL JOHN RHODES. 



RHODESIA. 363 

whom no one would suspect to have come out to Africa 
twenty years ago as an invalid. His manners are quiet 
and unassuming, and he has the power possessed by other 
very great men, of temporarily relieving himself at will 
from the strain and stress of mental worry. He is a sports- 
man, a great lover of horses, and a scholar. In a speech 
made recently before the shareholders of the British South 
African Company, Mr. Rhodes said, summing up the geo- 
graphical power and importance of South Africa: "We 
have a country twelve hundred miles in length and five 
hundred in breadth, and it is mineralized from end to 
end." This is the country popularly named Rhodesia, of 
which it is the purpose of this chapter to speak, though 
briefly, for at present its history is a record of beginnings. 

Mr. Rhodes has had six brothers. Mr. Herbert Rhodes, 
the eldest, was killed while elephant-hunting in the Ny- 
asaland; Colonel Frank Rhodes distinguished himself in 
the Soudan campaign, and was in command of the ist 
(Royal) Dragoons. Sir Herbert Stewart spoke of him as 
" the best aid-de-camp it was ever the good fortune of a 
general to have." Captain Ernest Frederick Rhodes is in 
the Royal Engineers; Captain Elmhart Rhodes in the Royal 
Berkshire regiment. Another brother is farming near 
Buluwayo, and the youngest is a captain in the Royal 
Artillery. It is, indeed, a family to be proud of. Its 
principal member has not escaped the notice of a very 
prominent novelist. Mr. Anthony Hope has sketched his 
career in "The God in the Car," which will make him 
widely known to fiction-loving readers. 

When the South African Company entered on its duties 
of administration in the country assigned to it by its charter, 
a good understanding existed between Lobengula, who 
governed Matabeleland and Mashonaland, and the white 
gold seekers, not very numerous in 1889, although large min- 
ing concessions had been made to English companies. In 
that year a pioneer force, under Colonel Pennefather, was 
despatched into Mashonaland from Kimberley. In Septem- 



364 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

ber of the next year it reached a spot in the mountains 
where many mining claims had already been staked out, 
and some were in operation. A fort was built and called 
Fort Salisbury. The Union Jack was hoisted, a royal salute 
was fired, and the town of Salisbury, destined hereafter to 
be a place of paramount importance in South Africa, was 
begun. Salisbury is now connected with the sea-coast by 
a railroad through Portuguese territory. It has had, I may 
say from the first, telegraphic communication with Cape 
Town; it has good hotels, churches, and a newspaper. 
It stands about five thousand feet above sea-level, and 
"enjoys an abundance of that peculiarly exhilarating air 
which is only to be found in the tropical highlands." 
The valleys and low lands that must be passed to reach it 
are, however, full of fever. 

The unfortunate chief, Lobengula, the pot de terre des- 
tined to be crushed by the pot de fer whenever they should 
come into collision, was not a native ruler of those landso 
His father, Moselekatse, was an invader, conqueror, and 
oppressor. When the great Chaka, aiming to imitate the 
"Sultan Buonabardi," — rumors of whose power and glory 
had reached even the Zulus, — organized his army, Mosele- 
katse was one of his great sub-chiefs, but on his proving 
insubordinate to some royal command, Chaka marched 
against him with a great body of his warriors. On arriv- 
ing, however, in the district of the offender, Moselekatse 
and all belonging to him were not to be found. They 
had crossed the Drakenberg, and entered the Transvaal. 
There they were not long tolerated by the Boers, and were 
driven north to form a new nation in a new country. 
They brought with them Chaka 's ideas of army organiza- 
tion. Their warriors were banded into regiments. They 
made war upon the docile, peaceful, cowardly Mashonas, 
to whom the land belonged. From that time forward, that 
is to say, for more than sixty years, the cruel raids of the 
Matabele, — the name by which the followers of Moselekatse 
are known^ — have desolated the country of the once peaceful 



RHODESIA. 365 

and, in some respects, semi-civilized Mashonas. "For 
years and years," said the traveller who explored the ancient 
ruins in that region, "Mashonaland has been the happy 
hunting-ground of the Matabele. It is impossible to 
speak too emphatically upon the misery wrought by the 
Matabele on the Mashona tribes. Matabeleland is to-day 
full of Mashona slaves. The aristocratic Matabele do 
not care to do their own work, but entrust the care of their 
cattle and their fields to Mashonas snatched from their 
homes and their relatives in their annual raids. This is 
why all Mashona villages are perched on rocky pinnacles, 
and when we travelled through untrodden paths in Ma- 
shonaland, we could see the naked black savages scampering 
away up the rocks, like goats or lizards; and on more than 
one occasion we had some difficulty in explaining to them 
that we were not a Matabele band." 

The name Mashona is unknown among these people. 
They call themselves Makalanga, which means " Children 
of the Sun." Three hundred years ago, when Portuguese 
traders penetrated into their lands, their chief was called 
the Monomotopa, and under the name of Mokaranga, his 
people were well described by one of the missionary 
fathers. There was once a great empire of the Monomo- 
topa, which in time split up into various sub-chieftainships. 

The Mashona or Makalanga are very skilful in smelting 
iron ; whole villages devote their time to working in that 
metal, tilling no land and keeping no cattle, but exchang- 
ing their iron-headed assegais, barbed arrow-heads, tools, 
wire, etc., for grain and such commodities as they require. 
At the proper season whole villages go forth into the for- 
ests to collect bark, which is woven into blankets, bags, 
string, quivers, and even beehives. The bark industry is 
second only to that of iron-smelting among them. 

The most wonderful thing, however, in Mashonaland is 
its ruins, — ruins of great cities built by an unknown race. 
The land may be Ophir, — the land of gold of Scripture. 
The Portuguese, in 1506, discovered a ruined city, in- 



366 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

habited by a people they called Moors, ruling over a sub- 
ject race of Kafirs. Of late years Mr. Theodore Bent 
has been employed by the Royal Geographical Society to 
explore these ruins, and has written on the subject a very 
interesting book, abounding in illustrations. The princi- 
pal ruin is at a place called Zimbabwe, whence for three 
hundred miles the remains of a line of fortifications may be 
traced, works which seem once to have connected the strong- 
hold of Zimbabwe with another similar city and fortress, 
leaving no doubt that they are the work of the same people. 
Whoever may have built these wonderful structures of 
hewn stones, — here and there ornamented with somewhat 
rude tracings, it is evident that they were attracted thither 
by gold, and that these masses of masonry were constructed 
partly for the protection of miners, whose shafts and work- 
ings may still be seen in their vicinity, also as strongholds 
for extracting and storing the precious metal. Near Tati, 
the most southerly of the fortifications, old diggings are 
met with by thousands, along with more modern shafts and 
workings, showing that the Portuguese, or natives whom 
they encouraged to seek gold, have striven to follow the 
example set them by the builders and miners of an unknown 
period. The triple walls of Zimbabwe are, in some places, 
thirty feet high, and are built of cut granite stones about 
the size of bricks ; but columns, pilasters, and even figures 
of colossal birds, carved for the most part in soapstone, 
are found among the ruins. It is said that when the Port- 
uguese first visited the ruins there were inscriptions on 
some parts of them, but they were not of any interest to 
rough traders and missionaries, and no trace of them can 
now be found. 

It would be impossible here to enter into the arguments 
by which Mr. Bent seems conclusively to prove that these 
buildings, their pillars, monoliths, round towers, and 
temples, were of Phoenician origin. That quartz was 
crushed and gold extracted is proved by the remains found 
in some places, and by the tools that have been used. 



RHODESIA. 367 

There would have been many more remains of pottery 
and other objects in the ruins had not many parts of them 
been converted, at one time, by Kafirs into habitations. 

Though no mortar has been used in their construction, 
the floors are made of cement, composed of pounded 
granite, as are some steps in the principal temple. It is 
curious that the more important of these ancient buildings 
are found on the sunless side of a hill. This, to a certain 
degree, has been the cause of their preservation, the natives 
loving sunshine and dreading to be chilly. 

Mr. Bent, accompanied by his wife, some gentlemen, 
and a small body of white workmen, stayed at the ruins of 
Zimbabwe two months. He engaged the native Mashonas 
to work for him, and soon found them handy, honest, and 
careful. Here are a few lines from his description of these 
people : — 

"The men were forever dancing; either a beer drink, 
a new moon, or simple, unfeigned joviality being the 
motive power. Frequently on cold evenings our men 
would dance round the camp-fire. Round and round they 
went, capering, shouting, and gesticulating. Now and 
again scouts would be sent out from the dance, who would 
engage in fight with an imaginary foe. If one had not 
had personal experience of their cowardice, one might 
almost have been alarmed at their hostile attitudes. On 
pay-day, when our thirty workmen each received a blanket 
for his month's work, they treated us to a dance, each man 
wrapped in his new acquisition. Their chief presided 
with his sceptre and battle-axe, and a string of very ancient 
Venetian beads around his neck, brought, probably, into 
the country long ages back by traders from Portugal. It 
was a most energetic and ridiculous-looking scene as the 
blankets whirled round in the air and the men shouted and 
yelled with joy. The novelty of possessing a blanket was 
an intense delight to these savages." 

The features of these people were less negroid than 
those of the common run of Kafirs. Everywhere, in their 



368 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

appearance and their customs, Mr. Bent seemed to find 
traces of their Arabian or Semitic origin. 

Such were the people into whose land of peace Mosele- 
katse and his warriors suddenly came. The old chief died 
about 1870, and for a time the affairs of the Matabele 
were managed by an old prime minister, while search was 
made for the eldest son of the chief, who had gone down 
to Natal and been killed in a skirmish with some Boers. 
When his fate was ascertained, Lobengula, the next son of 
Moselekatse, was proclaimed king. One of his first acts 
was to grant gold-mining concessions to Mr. Thomas Baines, 
then in his country as agent for one of the new gold-finding 
companies. Mr. Baines had been associated with Living- 
stone in one of his explorations, and enjoyed great respect 
and confidence among the native tribes. Lobengula was 
repeatedly and very sincerely assured that the cession of 
these mining privileges involved no cession of sovereignty. 
He was, in general, disposed to be very friendly to the 
English, believing that the countenance and friendship of 
white men would give him/;r^//^^ among his people. 

In 1888 he said to Lieutenant Maund, who visited his 
country as agent for some mining company : " I am afraid of 
being eaten up either by the Portuguese or the Boers, — the 
Boers come to my country and also the Portuguese, but I 
will not have them eat me up. I wish to make friends 
with the Great White Queen, but the Boers tell me that 
there is no White Queen, — that England has been eaten 
up by the Dutch long ago. I don't know what to believe 
among them all. You must do this for me. Maundy, — 
you must take two of my chiefs home with you to England, 
and let them see the Great White Queen themselves and 
bring me word again." He furnished money for their 
expenses, and Lieutenant Maund, though much embarrassed 
by the commission, accepted it, being sure that if he 
refused the king would believe all the stories of there 
being no White Queen, and would make the best bargain 
he could with the Dutch, 



RHODESIA, 369 

The lieutenant took his charges down to Cape Town, 
where the High Commissioner, Sir Hercules Robinson, at 
first made much objection to the irregular embassy, but at 
length having learnt all the facts in the case, he permitted 
them to proceed to England. There, after some difficul- 
ties, an informal interview with her Majesty was arranged 
for them. The queen received them with the utmost kind- 
ness, and ordered a turn-out of fifty Life Guardsmen to 
receive them. These magnificent men, all over six feet 
high, in splendid uniforms, greatly impressed the chiefs. 
And when their king's letter (which he had dictated to 
Lieutenant Maund) was placed in the White Queen's hand, 
tlieir joy knew no bounds, — they had accomplished their 
mission. A year later, however, the chartered company of 
South Africa assumed jurisdiction over the British sphere 
of influence, lying between the protectorate of Bechuana- 
land and the Zambesi. Neither Lobengula nor his chiefs 
had made any resistance to the advance of the pioneer 
force under Colonel Pennefather, which built Fort Salis- 
bury for the protection of the mining region; but there 
was great excitement among the young warriors of the 
Matabele regiments, and it required ail the restraining in- 
fluence of the older chiefs, and of King Lobengula, who 
was anxious to protect the lives of the white men in his 
dominions; to prevent murder and outrage in Mashona- 
land; and attacks on the pioneer force as it made its way 
to Salisbury. Having reached that place, and built a 
fort, September, 1890, the greater part of the pioneers dis- 
persed to prospect in the surrounding country. "Around 
Fort Salisbury there was a network of old workings and 
deep shafts, proving the existence of gold, and how it had 
been looked for by the ancients." 

The English now considered themselves masters of Ma- 
shonaland, which is the eastern portion of the sphere of British 
influence confided for protection and development to the 
chartered company of South Africa. Three principal forts 
were built. Fort Salisbury, Fort Victoria, and Fort Charter. 

2 B ^ 



370 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY, 

During 1891 and 1892 the European population con- 
tinued to increase. Wagons blocked the miry swamps 
and rocky hillside roads that led to the new thriving towns 
of Salisbury and Victoria. The railroad between Salis- 
bury and Beira, through Portuguese territory to the Indian 
Ocean, was being pushed forward. The miners suffered 
much from fever, "the sickness" among their horses, 
starvation, and a general lack of medicines and supplies; 
but no general attack was made on them by the Matabele. 
Lobengula was still able to restrain his people. But, 
although at considerable risk to himself he protected the 
lives of the white men, he did not see why, having given 
raining concessions to the English, those concessions need 
restrain him from the privilege of making raids on the 
Mashonas. For fifty years the Matabele had harried the 
Mashonas when it pleased them; and in July, 1893, a band 
of warriors broke into the district around Victoria, killed 
four hundred Mashonas, who were at work for European 
settlers, murdered domestic servants before their masters' 
eyes, wrecked homesteads, drove off cattle, and threatened 
the white men that their day was coming. 

The settlers in Mashonaland at once drew up a memorial 
to the British South African Company imploring its pro- 
tection, and urging that horses and other supplies might be 
sent them at once, that they might advance on Lobengula' s 
capital Buluwayo. 

Dr. Jameson was then the company's administrator 
in Mashonaland. Mr. Rhodes instantly raised recruits, 
including three hundred men from the Transvaal; collected 
supplies; and, notwithstanding the lateness of the season, 
jjushed forward a column into Matabeleland on the west, 
while Dr. Jameson, with the other leading white men 
in Mashonaland, was untiring in his efforts to equip and 
organize a co-operative force as speedily as possible. By 
the end of October, 1893, this little force of six hundred 
and seventy white men, supported by a small native con- 
tingent, was ready at Victoria and Charter to advance in 
two columns on Buluwayo. 



RHODESIA. 371 

Meantime the main body was pushing onward from the 
south, by a more difficult road, into Matabeleland, which 
lies west of Mashonaland and borders on the unoccupied 
sphere of German influence in Southwestern Africa. 

This body consisted of two hundred men of the Bechuana 
police, under Colonel Goold- Adams; three hundred men 
recruited in the Transvaal under a brave and efficieiit 
officer, the commandant Raaff; and a force of two thou- 
sand men sent by Khama, a native chief living in the 
protectorate of Bechuanaland. 

King Khama is thus described by Mr,, Theodore Bent, 
who is excellent authority : — 

" He is a model savage, if a black man who has been thor- 
oughly civiUzed by European and missionary influence can be 
called one. He is an autocrat of the best possible type, whose 
influence in his country is entirely thrown into the scale of virtue 
and the suppression of vice. Such a thing as theft is not known 
in his realm. He has put a stop to drinking, and to the wiles of 
witch-doctors among his people. He conducts, in person, ser- 
vices every Sunday, in his large, round Hotla or place of assem- 
bly, standing beneath the tree of justice and the wide canopy of 
heaven, in a truly patriarchal style. . . . Khama in manner and 
appearance is a gentleman, dignified and courteous. He wears 
well made European clothes, a billy-cock hat and gloves, and 
in his hand he brandishes a dandy cane. He pervades every- 
thing in his country, riding about from point to point wherever 
his presence is required, and if he is just a little too much of a 
dandy it is an error, in his peculiar case, in the right direction. 
On more than one occasion he has driven back Matabele raids 
from his country, which is the threshold of Mashonaland, a 
series of rivers dividing it from the high plateau where dwell the 
tribes we collectively call Mashonas. Fifty years ago these 
people had no external enemies to molest them. Their quarrels, 
jealousies, and rivalries were all amongst themselves. Then 
came Moselekatse and his Zulus, and made short work of the 
aborigines, taking from them the best part of their country, which 
we now know as Matabeleland." 

Unhappily Khama' s contingent, though it fought bravely 
beside the English in one battle, deserted in a body a few 
days after. The season for ploughing had arrived, small- 



372 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

pox had broken out, and the campaign promised to be long. 
These reasons seemed sufficient to men not trained in Euro- 
pean codes of military honor. 

The commander in chief of the three Mashonaland col- 
umns marching to invade Matabeleland was Major Patrick 
William Forbes. Some men thought that in accepting 
the responsibility of invading the lands of the warlike 
Matabele with a force of seven hundred and fifty men he 
was doing a rash thing in face of the opinion of a great 
military authority, expressed three years previously, that 
success could not be hoped for with an army of less than 
seven thousand men; but he says himself: "I. had always 
looked upon the Matabele as being overrated, and thought 
that with our superiority, both as regards men and arms, 
we ought to be successful; in addition to which I knew 
that Dr. Jameson had had considerable experience in 
Matabeleland and that he was satisfied it was safe." 

A great difficulty at starting was to procure suitable 
horses. Horses "unsalted," as it is called, were almost 
sure to die of a lung disease peculiar to the climate. The 
force had three Maxim guns, one of which was drawn by 
horses, one by mules, and the other by oxen; besides this 
there was a small one-pounder Hotchkiss gun. One of the 
Maxims fired shells. The success of the expedition lay in 
this artillery. The officers in command of the three troops 
in the Salisbury column were Captains Heany, Spreckley, 
and Borrow. The last-named lost his life in the disaster 
on the Shangani River at the close of the expedition. 

The Victoria column was commanded by Captain Allan 
Wilson, late an officer in the Queen's service, who was in 
command of the thirty-four who perished afterwards at the 
Shangani River. 

The Tuli column was composed chiefly of Dutch Boers, 
who had settled in Mashonaland; commander Raaff, their 
commander, survived the war, but died shortly after, 
broken down by its hardships. There was a scouting 
section which rendered invaluable service, two of its men 



RHODESIA. 373 

especially, called the American scouts, Messrs. Burnham 
and Ingram, who had been trained for that work by service 
among the Indians. 

The point chiefly insisted on by Major Forbes was that 
each night his camp should form a laager. That is, that 
its wagons should encircle it, guarded by the Maxim guns, 
which were always in position. The horses were picketed 
within the camp, the oxen close around it, the wagons on 
the outside. It was the custom of the Matabele to attack 
before daylight. Their natural mode of fighting was to 
rush on with their assegais, but, unfortunately for them, 
they had been armed with rifles, whose management they 
imperfectly understood. The white men constantly heard 
their chiefs {indunas) exhorting them to throw away their 
guns and trust to their assegais, but they generally preferred 
to fight under cover of the bush. There the Maxim guns, 
of which they were horribly afraid, had them at advantage. 
In no instance did they get near enough to the laager to 
rush upon it, and the loss of the little European force in 
killed and wounded was extraordinarily small. 

The Salisbury column, which was in advance, left 
Charter October 2, 1893; two weeks later the Victoria 
column joined it, and they moved on together, the weather 
proving very wet; for from the middle of October to 
Christmas is in Matabeleland the rainy seasoUo They 
had constant skirmishings, but no severe fighting until 
they came within a short distance of Buluwayo, when they 
were attacked by the whole Matabele army. According 
to the tactics brought from Zululand by Moselekatse, that 
army was organized into wipis or regiments. Several of 
these, the Insukameni regiment in particular, considered 
themselves invincible. They marched boldly, straight up 
to the laager, when the Maxims and the Hotchkiss gun 
drove them back. When half their number had been 
killed they desisted from their attacks. One wounded 
induna or chief, subsequently taken, laughed, though even 
then in mortal agony, at the idea that his incomparable 



374 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY, 

regiment should have "been beaten by boys." Indeed, 
when one looks upon the portraits of the officers and men 
preserved for us in the handsome volume called "The 
Downfall of Lobengula," the extreme youth and comeli- 
ness of all concerned in the expedition is the first thing 
that impresses us. A few days after this battle another 
engagement took place with two other crack regiments, the 
Imbeza and Ingubu, whose chiefs had scorned the Imben- 
besi for being worsted in the fight, and had assured the 
king that they would walk into the white men's laager and 
lead them out on the other side, killing the older men and 
keeping the rest for slaves. They had been ordered to 
attack the columns on their march, when the Maxim guns 
were supposed to be useless, but they could never find 
the opportunity. The Imbeza regiment, which led the 
advance, lost about five hundred men out of seven hundred. 
They acknowledged themselves to be completely beaten, 
though they could not understand how it was so. Thus 
the Mashonaland columns met and practically annihilated 
the most formidable force that Lobengula could send 
against them. 

Exactly a month after the columns left Charter Buluwayo 
was occupied by the English, and the army of Lobengula 
was scattered over the country. 

The king had quitted his capital, burning his own build- 
ings and his own storehouse, which contained much valu- 
able ivory, but giving orders to the people whom he left 
behind to destroy the city, to spare the houses and the 
lives of some white men who had still remained under his 
protection. 

Buluwayo was entered on November 2, and on November 
10 the news of its capture was published in the London 
papers; Mr. Burnham, one of the American scouts, having 
ridden two hundred and ten miles in four days to carry the 
news to Palapye in the protectorate of Bechuanaland, 
whence it was telegraphed to Cape Town and to England. 

This was not the only famous ride at that period through 



RHODESIA. 375 

a hostile country. In the Bechuanaland Border police, — 
a force composed of men of all sorts and conditions, — 
university men, professional men, burghers, farmers, and 
adventurers, — was Corporal Owen Hassall. He was the 
son of an English gentleman; had a taste for active life, 
and had first tried his fortune in Canada; thence he found 
his way to Africa. When Colonel Goold-Adams, command- 
ing the southern advance, had reached Buluwayo, it became 
necessary to send him a despatch from Colonel Gray, who 
was bringing up reinforcements and was near the danger- 
ous Mangwe Pass in the mountains of Matabeleland. Mr. 
Owen Hassall at once volunteered for the duty. Leaving 
the Mangwe Pass at 9 a. m., in company with one trooper, 
he reached Buluwayo, seventy-four miles distant, at noon 
the next day. The country was still hostile, infested by 
small parties of the Matabele intensely irritated against 
white men, and eager to attack isolated traveller^, who were 
not backed by a conquering force, or protected by Maxim 
guns. This journey was rendered the more hazardous as 
the last twenty miles had to be performed on foot, when 
their horses were broken down and failed them. This was 
only one of many hair-breadth 'scapes and bold, brave 
deeds that signalized the African career of this young 
soldier. "It is to be hoped," said the "Army and Navy 
Gazette," when recording his adventure, "that when the 
despatches arrive at headquarters the plucky ride of this 
non-commissioned officer will be noticed, and his gallan- 
try rewarded." This hope has been fulfilled by the imme- 
diate promise of a commission which will enable him to 
devote his whole life to military duty. Some of his rela- 
tions are officers of rank in the service of her Majesty. 

The annals of this Matabele war, which lasted only three 
months, are full of episodes recording individual feats of 
self-devotion and bravery. 

It seemed to the authorities of the chartered company 
of immense importance that Lobengula should either send 
in his submission or be captured. Messages were sent to 



3/6 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

him offering him his choice of these alternatives, but mes- 
sengers were very difficult to find. They dreaded, not the 
displeasure of the king, in whose consideration for the 
English they seemed to have confidence, but the anger of 
the young men who surrounded him. Twice Lobengula 
expressed his intention of coming in and holding a 
conference with Dr. Jameson, if assured of safety, but 
meantime, accompanied by a small force, he was travelling 
with two wagons, himself drawn by sixteen men, in a bath- 
chair, to the Zambesi River, which he was urged by his 
younger warriors to cross, and, like his father Moselekatse, 
form a new nation. He was terribly infirm. He had gout 
and a complication of disorders, so that his sufferings in 
his rapid flight, hunted from station to station by the force 
under Major Forbes, must have been terrible. 

"Although the nation," says Major Forbes, "acknowl- 
edged itself beaten and a large number of the natives 
wished to submit, they would do nothing so long as the 
king remained at large and in the country. He had, there- 
fore, to be captured or driven out of it." 

As the major and his men advanced to the Shangani 
River day by day, on the heels, as it were, of Lobengula, 
they had frequent skirmishes. Whenever they took prison- 
ers, or met natives in their kraals who did not attack them, 
they assured them of protection or advised them to return 
in peace to their abandoned homes. 

The expedition, however, grew short of supplies, and it 
became necessary to turn back to Buluwayo. Before doing 
so Major Wilson proposed to take with him a small party, 
and crossing the river reconnoitre the position of a 
scherm, or temporary camp, about four miles further, where 
it was supposed the king lay. Two days before they had 
come on the remains of his old bath-chair, and one account 
says that his empty beer-bottles marked out his road. 

Major Wilson took with him twelve men mounted on the 
best horses in the camp. He did not return that night as 
was expected, but sent back word that he had every expec' 



RHODESIA. 2i77 

tation the next day of capturing the king, and a reinforce- 
ment of twenty men, under Captain Borrow, was sent up 
to him, together with the American scouts and a young 
man named Gooding. 

Meantime, before dawn, the main body, under Major 
Forbes, was attacked, the enemy in the end were driven 
off after sharp fighting, but in the midst of their own 
anxieties the white men heard firing in the distance across 
the river, and became apprehensive for Major Wilson. 

Shortly after, when the enemy had retired, driven off by 
the Maxim guns, the two scouts and their companion, 
Gooding, rode into the laager, and Burnham, dropping 
from his horse, exclaimed, pointing in the direction Wilson 
had taken, " I think I may say we are the sole survivors of 
that party ! " 

Alas ! this was true. It was not till the war was over 
that all the sad story was gathered from the natives, who 
had been deeply impressed with the pluck of the thirty- 
four white men who would not save themselves by flight 
because they could not carry off two disabled comrades. 
Here is the story as a recent writer tells it : — 

" Major Wilson and his party had ridden on, meeting with no 
resistance, till they reached the royal scherin ; within which the 
king's wagons were dimly visible in the gathering gloom. Here 
a halt was called, and Lobengula summoned to surrender. The 
reply was an ominous rattle of arms within the reed fence, while 
parties of Matabele, rifle in hand, would issue from their cover 
to attempt a conclusion ; they would charge, but again and again 
were repulsed by a well-directed fire ; upon which Wilson and 
his men would wake the echoes with an undismayed defiant 
cheer. But at last the end came. Of the thirty-four valiant 
men whose hearts beat high with hope and courage as they rode 
behind their leader in the early dawn that morning, only one 
remained erect ; the rest lay prone, dead or dying, upon the field 
of honor. The name of the one man who stood at bay against 
an army of Matabele will never be known ; his remains could 
not be identified. But the natives tell, that picking up several 
rifles and bandoliers, this hero among heroes made his way to 
an ant-heap some twenty yards from where the rest lay stretched 
upon the earth. From that point of vantage he checked, single- 



3/8 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

handed, several rushes of the Matabele, with a cool and deadly 
fire. At length, shot through the hips, he fell upon his knees, 
but continued to load and fire until he succumbed to his wounds. 
Then, and not till then, the Matabele came out from the bush, 
but on reaching the hallowed circle where the Patrol lay side 
by side, they were fired upon by several of the unconquerable 
wounded who were still alive. So great had been the terror and 
demoralization inspired by the desperate bravery of the Patrol, 
that when the revolvers rung out, the natives turned and fled 
precipitately into the bush, and it was not till several hours later, 
— ' when the sun was right overhead,' as the Matabele tell the 
tale, — that they again ventured to leave their cover. But by 
this time death had mercifully come to the wounded, and as the 
native warriors gazed upon the forms of their fallen foes there 
was silence. For some weeks afterwards the comrades of these 
brave men hoped against hope that even one of the Patrol might 
have escaped down the Shangani River, although, as Ingram the 
American scout had explained : ' Two of the men were dis- 
mounted and many of the horses were completely done up. 
Some of those with the best horses might have got away, but — 
well, they were not the sort of men to leave their chums.' He 
added, 'No, — I guess they fought it out right there — where they 
stood.' Thus it was. For some weeks after the bones of thirty- 
three of Wilson's heroic band were found lying close together. 
Those of the dauntless man who had faced the Matabele alone 
lay apart. 

" Thus they died. Youths fresh from English schools and 
universities, older men who looked back upon a useful span of life 
spent upon the frontiers of our great African empire. ... A 
hospital has been raised to their memory at Buluwayo, and their 
bones have been interred at Zimbabwe, where, amidst the monu- 
ments of a prehistoric civilization, a simple monument of granite 
marks the resting-place of a band of England's lion-hearted 
dead." 

Lobengula had retreated north toward the Zambesi, but 
overmastered by his misfortunes and infirmities, he died 
when within forty miles of that river. He had sent mes- 
sengers to negotiate terms of peace with Dr. Jameson, 
but these had never reached their destination. Only one 
of his indimas was with him at his death, who at once 
sent for Mjan, the commander in chief of the Matabele 
armies. He hastened to the spot and interred the body. 



RHODESIA, 



379 



The death of Lobengula was the closing event of the 
campaign. His principal indunas sent in their submission 
as soon as they found that it would be accepted, and the 
warriors, with their wives and children, went back to their 
deserted homes. 

The volunteers were at once disbanded and, on Decem- 
ber 23, 1893, they were dismissed to their homes. A civil 
police force of one hundred and fifty men was formed to 
remain on duty in the country, together with four hundred 
and twenty men of the Bechuana Border police force, for 
the purpose of doing garrison work during the rainy season, 
while sixty men were distributed along the southern line 
of communication. This small force was now deemed 
sufficient to secure the company's interest in Matabele- 
land. The natives had been disarmed; about ten thou- 
sand assegais had been brought in and about one thousand 
rifles. 

The conditions on which the volunteers had enlisted 
for the war were : I. Protection of all claims in Mashona- 
land till six months after the war ended. II. A farm of six 
thousand acres free of occupation. HI. Twenty gold 
claims. IV. A share of all cattle taken, half of which was 
to go to the company, the other half to be equally divided 
among all members of the expedition, share and share 
alike. 

Buluwayo is fast becoming a place of some consequence. 
A member of the Bechuana Border police, who has recently 
written his experiences in the "National Review," says: — 

"When I passed through Buluwayo on my way down 
country, prospectors were pegging out gold claims and 
searching for likely spots. . . . Each man was then 
bringing his own necessaries, and the sole accommodation 
consisted of huts run up quickly. One building of this 
description was dignified by the name of a hotel. But on 
my way down I met the materials for a large number of 
corrugated iron stores and shanties; also, marvellous to 
relate, a billiard-table on a wagon in the Mangwe Pass, 



380 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

which had been stuck in the mud for some time, or rather, 
to be strictly accurate, was progressing at the rate of about 
three miles a week." 

The same authority says also : — 

"Though I was one of those who, under Forbes, pursued 
poor old Lobengula to the Shangani River, I make bold to 
say that a general feeling of sympathy for the poor old 
king pervaded the whole force, as we tracked the wheel- 
prints of his old bath-chair, intent on his capture or 
destruction." 

There is no doubt that Lobengula' s treatment of English- 
men during the last years of his life was wonderfully 
chivalrous for a savage. But it is alleged against him by 
no less a person than Mr. Rider Haggard, that in 1878 he 
basely planned and caused to be executed the murder of 
three Englishmen, Captain Patterson, Mr. Sargeaunt, and 
a young son of Mr. Thomas, a missionary. Captain Pat- 
terson was anxious to visit the Great Falls of the Zambesi, 
and to kill big game on his way through Matabeleland. 
Learning his intention, Sir Bartle Frere asked him to under- 
take a friendly mission to Lobengula, for the purpose of 
remonstrating with him concerning his oppression of cer- 
tain white traders. 

"Sir Bartle Frere's choice," says Mr. Haggard, "was 
in one way ill-considered, as its terrible issue proved, 
seeing that his envoy had little experience of natives of 
Zulu blood, and none of dealing with them diplomatically." 

They reached Lobengula' s kraal in safety, but at a cer- 
tain point in the negotiations Captain Patterson is believed 
to have reminded Lobengula, by way of threat, that his 
elder brother, Kruman, who had fled to Natal, was still 
living, and that many of the Matabele believed him to be 
Moselekatse's rightful heir. 

" The effect of this communication was startling; from that 
moment Lobengula, before unfriendly, became profusely 
civil to the envoys, and from that moment, as I believe, " says 
Mr. Haggard, " he doomed them to a sudden and cruel death." 



RHODESIA, 381 

He readily gave them permission to visit the Falls of the 
Zambesi, and furnished them with twenty bearers. He 
was, however, unwilling to allow young Thomas, son of a 
missionary whom he liked, to accompany them, not wish- 
ing, apparently, to include him in a slaughter that was 
already planned. " The next thing heard at Pretoria of the 
progress of the party was from the lips of messengers sent 
by Lobengula, who announced that the bearers had returned 
to the king's kraal, but that the three white men and their 
two servants had died of drinking poisoned water. The 
manner of their deaths was given, I remember, in great 
detail, Mr. Sargeaunt being represented as living longest, 
'because he was very strong.' " 

There were circumstances that made this story seem 
improbable; still, in the shock and confusion of the news, 
it was accepted without close scrutiny. Some time later, 
however, news came through a Bechuana man who was 
wearing a coat of Captain* Patterson's, "that a while back 
a brother of his was out hunting in the desert for ostriches, 
in the company of other natives, when, hearing shots fired 
some way off, they followed the sound, thinking that white 
men were shooting game and they might beg some of the 
meat. On reaching a spot by a pool of water, they were 
horrified to see the bodies of three white men lying on the 
ground, and with them those of a Hottentot and a Kafir 
surrounded by a number of Matabele. They asked the 
Matabele what they had been doing, — killing the white 
men? — and were told to 'be still,' for the deed was done 
by 'order of the king, who killed whom he chose.' Then 
they learned the story of the treachery." 

It seemed Captain Patterson was writing in his diary as 
he sat by the pool, when one of the bearers called him to 
look at a great snake in the water. Captain Patterson, who 
was devoted to natural history, at once ran up, and, as he 
stooped over the edge of the pool, his neck was broken by 
a blow from his own axe. The others were shot down and 
assegaied, Mr. Sargeaunt making a desperate resistance, 



382 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

The coat the Bechuana informant wore had been given, he 
said, by the Matabele to his brother. 

" No public notice was taken of the matter, for the obvi- 
ous reason that without enormous expense and the under- 
taking of war upon a large scale, it was impossible to get at 
Lobengula to punish him." But the day of retribution 
came at last, and this story diminishes our sympathy for 
Lobengula. 

Nor can we do otherwise than rejoice that the power of 
the Matabele is broken. Mr. Theodore Bent, writing 
before the war began, speaks thus of the Matabele raids 
around Fort Victoria : — 

" An eye-witness writes to me that not far from Fort 
Victoria a whole village under the chief Setousi has been 
wiped out by the last raid; the younger inhabitants being 
made slaves of, while the older ones were ruthlessly 
butchered. I was witness myself of the devastation 
wrought by these raids in the direction of the Sali River, 
— of a whole district depopulated which had once pos- 
sessed many villages, the remains of which could be traced 
on every side; of the abject terror of the inhabitants, who 
fled at our approach to the rocks, and yet there are those 
found in England who profess to support this state of 
affairs, and to say that Lobengula has a perfect right to 
do what he likes with what they call his own." 

Rhodesia, great as is its extent, is not the only portion 
of British Central Africa that has been made over, for 
development, to the chartered South African Company. 
In May, 1891, the field of the company's operations was 
extended to the mouth of the Zambesi, and its territories 
now cover the whole of British Central Africa from the 
British protectorate of Bechuanaland to the southern shore 
of Lake Tanganyika, with the exception of Nyasaland, 
which is a British protectorate, ruled over by Mr. H. H. 
Johnston as consul-general and her Majesty's commissioner. 

The company's "sphere of influence" west of Nyasa- 



RHODESIA, 383 

land is bounded on the west by a Portuguese possession 
(Angola) ; south by the Portuguese East African possessions 
and by the Zambesi, which separates it from Mashonaland 
and Matabeleland; and north by Congo Free State. 

It has not yet been settled, governed, or developed in 
any way. It is the haunt of Arab slave-traders whose chief 
care is to push their caravans across the English or the Ger- 
man sphere either to the coast or into Portuguese territory, 
whence they ship cargoes of negroes to Madagascar. 

It is not needful here to say more about this sphere of 
British influence in Central Africa, and a few words may 
sufifice for the protectorate of Nyasaland. 

Nyasaland was the chief scene of the labors of Dr. 
Livingstone, whose name still lives among its natives in 
their songs. He died there. He had labored there. 
There he had settled many of the faithful Makololo who 
had followed his fortunes from sea to sea, most of whom 
became chiefs in their new land. 

After Dr. Livingstone returned to England he assisted 
in establishing two missions in Nyasaland. Bishop Mac- 
kenzie was sent out by the Universities Mission, but died 
of fever on a boat journey not long after his arrival. That 
mission now occupies the east coast of Lake Nyasa, 
and has its chief station at the south end of the lake upon 
two islands. It has a steamer on the lake, and, before the 
arrival of the Arab slave-traders, was making good progress 
among the Yaos, an intelligent and warlike tribe, inhabit- 
ing the surrounding country. The Arabs, however, found 
their way to this land not long after the missionaries. 
The road had been pointed out to both by Dr. Living- 
stone. They made friends with the chiefs of the Yaos, 
especially with one called Makanjira, converted them to 
Mohammedanism and made them their allies in slave- 
raiding. 

The Church of Scotland's Mission founded the chief town 
in Nyasaland, called Blantyre. It has, also, a station at 
Zomba, which is the official capital, and has likewise teachers 



384 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

in other places. It has given great attention to its schools, 
and has trained Yao boys to habits of industry, making 
some of them excellent type-setters. Its ministers have 
been men of activity and zeal, even outside of their pro- 
fession, and have rendered great services as explorers, 
philologists, botanists, etc. Besides the Scotch and the 
Universities missions, there are five others in Nyasaland; 
one of which is Roman Catholic, sent thither by Cardinal 
Lavigerie. 

In 1889 there was a station at Karongas on the west 
coast of Lake Nyasa, under the charge of the Scotch mis- 
sion. It was attacked by the Arabs and their native allies. 
The mission implored help from the African Lakes Com- 
pany, whose employes at that time were the only white men 
in the country except missionaries. The African Lakes 
Company had offered to supply those who entered their 
service with heavy rifles and all the requirements for ele- 
phant hunting, provided they were convinced that the 
applicant was likely to make a successful elephant hunter. 
The company had a right to buy, at a reduced price, all 
the ivory its hunters obtained, and made a very handsome 
profit, while the hunter took a share of the proceeds. 

Captain Lugard, afterwards so well known for his connec- 
tion with Uganda, was made commander of the little force 
raised by the Lakes Company, and sent to the succor of 
the missionary station at Karongas. 

While this little war went on, however, a number of 
events were taking place which affected its conclusion. 

Lord Salisbury, roused by unreasonable claims made by 
the Portuguese, insisted on the free navigation of the 
Zambesi. Colonel Serpa Pinto had marched into British 
territory, ascended the Shire River and shot down the native 
tribes, men who, under the Makololo chiefs, left them by 
Livingstone, had been always fast friends to the English. 
Serpa Pinto even threatened Blantyre. " The question of 
the rights of the English in the Shir^ Highlands and in 
Nyasaland had passed into the region of foreign office 



RHODESIA. 385 

investigation, and national indignation was excited by the 
action of Portugal," 

Mr. Rhodes was then in England and offered to buy out 
the rights of the African Lakes Company, but his negotia- 
tion hung fire, and he was compelled to return to the Cape 
leaving the affair unconcluded. 

Mr. H. H. Johnston was sent out by the foreign office to 
report on what he saw in Nyasaland, and to quiet, if pos- 
sible, the feud between the Arabs and the missionaries. 

He did his best, and made some treaties which were not 
altogether satisfactory to those who had fought at Karongas, 
and who considered the terms too favorable to the slavers 
and their black allies. The event, however, has proved 
the success of Mr. Johnston's policy. He went back to 
England and made his report; soon after which Nyasaland 
was proclaimed to be a British protectorate, and he returned 
to Africa to be its ruler. 

"His task as an administrator," says Captain Lugard, 
"was one of no ordinary difficulty and demanded the 
exercise of great tact and foresight. With characteristic 
pluck Mr. Johnston threw down the gauntlet to the 
slavers." 

With the small force of Sikhs and Zanzibaris at his com- 
mand, a seven-pounder gun, and later a Maxim, success 
attended all his expeditions, until at last occurred a sad 
disaster, viz., the killing of Captain Maguire, a brave 
Indian officer, the commander of the Sikhs; with him 
died another European, a Parsee doctor, and nine other 
men, "nor was the commissioner in a position to exact 
any vengeance for this massacre and the treachery of 
Makanjira." 

Subsequently, having received reinforcements, and being 
joined by the Germans under Baron von Eltz, of the Ger- 
man Anti-slavery Society, Mr. Johnston put down the 
slave-raiders, though not effectually till gun-boats were sent 
to the lake, together with those on the Shir6 River. At 
present slaves are occasionally ferried, by night, across the 

2C 



386 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

lake, but such enterprises are difficult and dangerous in the 
extreme to the offenders. 

The Protectorate of Nyasaland is a country full of lakes. 
It has, also, high plateaux and lofty mountains. Its prin- 
cipal lakes are Tanganyika and Nyasa. Lake Tanganyika, 
whose southern shore is the northern boundary of the Brit- 
ish sphere, is over four hundred miles in length, and from 
thirty to sixty miles broad. " Lake Nyasa (the third largest 
lake in Africa) is three hundred and sixty miles long, and 
about half the width of Tanganyika. There is also Lake 
Bangweolo, whose shores are so covered with reedy swamps 
that its area cannot be measured. The same may be said 
of Lake Rukwa, a salt lake lying just beyond the northern 
limit of Nyasaland. There is Lake Mweru and a salt lake 
with various names, — Chilwa, Kilwa, Shiwa. Indeed, the 
varieties of spelling used by map-makers and explorers in 
Central Africa are a great puzzle to all who would know 
anything of its geography. Hardly one lake, tribe, or dis- 
trict is known to natives by the name we call it. There is 
also a lake of liquid mud, called Malombe, through which 
the Shir^ River has forced a channel. 

Except in the rainy season, no rivers in Nyasaland seem 
to be navigable for any distance, for anything but canoes 
or barges of light draught. 

Nyasaland is known to be rich in minerals : iron that is 
smelted and worked skilfully by natives; coal which was 
discovered by the earliest missionaries; copper in abun- 
dance, and in Sultan Jumbe's country, on the west side of 
Lake Nyasa, has been found gold. But no attempts have 
been yet made to turn those mineral resources to account. 

"The inhabitants of Nyasaland are, in general, of the 
Bantu or Kafir stock, though in one district there is a 
milder race, a peaceful and industrious people, excellent 
agriculturists, and great smiths, being particularly clever 
in the working of iron. At no time do they seem to have 
been warlike, and consequently they have been always the 
victims of their predatory neighbors. The early Portu- 



RHODESIA. 387 

guese settlers in the Zambesi exploited them pitilessly for 
the slave-trade, and when there was a slight surcease of 
Portuguese spoliation the western part of their country was 
overrun by Zulu hordes at various periods, from 1820 to 
1870; above all, with the first appearance of Englishmen on 
the scene came the invasion of the Yaos." 

These inoffensive people are supposed to have been the 
original inhabitants of the land, and among them Living- 
stone settled his Makololo. 

As the coast people and Arabs began to penetrate to the 
lake region of East Central Africa they came in contact 
with the Yaos, who, from their predatory nature, entered 
into the idea of slave-raiding with real appreciation. 
Many of the Yao chiefs became inclined to Moham- 
medanism, and these people have ever since associated 
themselves with the Arabs. Nevertheless, as soon as a 
British protectorate was about to be established, many of 
the chiefs placed themselves voluntarily under British pro- 
tection, because, on the one hand, they disliked the idea 
of Portuguese rule, which was the only alternative, and on 
the other hand, the Mohammedan Yaos were greatly influ- 
enced by the decision of Jumbe, the Sultan of Marimba, 
the accredited agent of the Sultan of Zanzibar. "Jumbe," 
says Mr. Johnston, "at the time of my arrival, in 1889, 
was regarded in some respects as the most important chief 
on Lake Nyasa, and, being an Arab and a very orthodox 
Mohammedan, his example had considerable moral weight 
with all the other Yao chiefs, except the recalcitrant 
Makanjira." Recently another chief of the same band, 
Zarafi by name, has figured in newspaper reports as having 
become troublesome. "At present," adds Mr. Johnston, 
"the Arab represents, in the eyes of the natives, a rival 
civilization to that of the white man, and a civilization 
which is much more to their taste. ... A small subsidy 
is paid to Sultan Jumbe, and probably no chief in Africa 
has ever done more for his money than he. I really believe 
that he has honestly striven to pull down the slave-trade in 



388 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

his dominions. He is not always very kindly spoken of by 
the missionaries, because, being a zealous Mohammedan, 
he objects to the establishing of a Christian mission in his 
town, though he readily permits mission stations to be 
erected elsewhere in his country." 

In July, 1 89 1, when the protectorate was first established, 
there were fifty-seven European residents in the country. 
Three years later the number had increased to two hundred 
and thirty-seven, besides quite a large Hindoo immigration 
from India. I have elsewhere quoted Mr. Johnston's 
views as to the desirability of uniting the black with the 
yellow races through intermarriage. He hopes that East- 
ern and Central Africa may hereafter become the America 
"of the Hindoos. "The mixture of the races would," he 
says, "give the Indian the physical development which he 
lacks, and he in his turn would transmit to his half-negro 
offspring the industry, ambition, and aspiration towards a 
civilized life of which the negro so markedly stands in 
need." 

The armed force at the disposition of her Majesty's com- 
mission consists of three European officers; two hundred 
Sikhs, belonging to the regular army of India, who, for 
this service, have been allowed to volunteer from various 
regiments in the Punjaub; forty Zanzibaris, recruited by 
permission of the Sultan, their master; forty Arabs; sixty- 
nine natives from Portuguese territory, by permission, and 
a varying number of negro irregulars. 

Of a very spirited colored print in the weekly " Graphic " 
of May 18, 1895, Mr. Johnston says: — 

"It represents one of the Sikh soldiers serving in British 
Central Africa. It was drawn at a time when Fort Johnston was 
little more than a hastily thrown up stockade, instead of being, 
as it is now, an imposing fortress, with elaborate earthworks. 
Fort Johnston is situated on the Upper Shir^ two miles from the 
exit of that river from Lake Nyasa, the shores of which are visi- 
ble from the watch-tower of the fort. Fort Johnston was orig- 
inally founded by the late Captain Maguire in 1891, to overawe 
the large town of Mponda on the opposite bank of the river. 



RHODESIA. 389 

Mpondo was one of the most formidable of the Yao chiefs, and 
almost the biggest slave-trader in British Central Africa. He 
tried conclusions with the small force of seventy Sikhs who 
accompanied Captain Maguire and myself on our first expedition 
to Lake Nyasa, but sustained a complete defeat, which he had the 
grace to acknowledge by immediate peace-making ; since which 
he has remained fairly well behaved, while his people have 
markedly profited from the establishment of a large military 
force on the opposite bank of the river, trade being very brisk, 
and the Sikhs having plenty of money to spend." 

It is evident, from the foundations of old villages, and 
fragments of pottery buried several feet under the soil, that 
Central Africa was once peopled by races very superior to 
those now inhabiting the land. The slave-trade became 
prevalent when the Arabs first established their influence 
upon the coast, and it obtained an enormous development 
when the Portuguese succeeded the Arabs in power and 
introduced guns and gunpowder. Then it was that native 
races were taught to hunt down and to destroy each other. 
"The constant hunting of man by man kept the whole 
country in a state of unrest. Each native felt that at any 
moment his people might be attacked by another tribe, 
have their homes broken up and their wives and children 
sold. Consequently even now, except when they are 
settled near Europeans, they lead a hand-to-mouth exist- 
ence, just growing enough food for the support of their 
small community, and not daring to venture on any enter- 
prise or industry which might attract the cupidity of others. 
From every point of view, philanthropic and economic, we 
are right in trying to extirpate the slave-trade in Central 
Africa." 

Such are the views of Mr. Johnston, the man who has, 
probably, been more closely brought face to face with the 
subject than any other official in Africa. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. 

IN the year 1805 the United States had good reason to be 
proud of the success of their infant navy in humbling 
the pride of the Barbary pirates, and securing privileges 
that were denied to European powers. But when the war 
of 18 1 2 broke out with Great Britain the Dey of Algiers 
was easily persuaded " that the United States, as a mari- 
time power, would be swept from the face of the seas; that 
their commerce would be annihilated, and that England 
would consent to peace only upon the stipulation that the 
United States forever after should build no ships of war 
heavier than a frigate." 

The United States, in common with other maritime and 
Christian powers, still paid an annual tribute to the Dey 
of Algiers, in consideration of which his cruisers respected 
the Stars and Stripes on American merchantmen, and this 
tribute was commonly paid in kind. The Dey lost no time 
in getting up a dispute with the United States consul, Mr. 
Lear, on the plea that the goods sent him on the Alleghany^ 
an American vessel, were not in good condition, and forth- 
with despatched his cruisers in search of American prizes. 
Tunis and Tripoli also, being assured that the United 
States navy would speedily be crushed by a superior mari- 
time power, allowed four prizes sent into their ports by 
American privateers to be recaptured by the English. 

It was impossible for the United States to take notice of 
this insolence while the war of 18 12 was still upon their 
hands, but no sooner was peace signed with Great Britain 

390 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. 391 

than a fleet of ten United States ships-of-war, under Com- 
modore Decatur, sailed for the coast of Africa. 

The success of the expedition was complete with the 
Dey, the Bey, and the Bashaw. A brilliant naval engage- 
ment took place between the flagships of the American and 
Algerine squadrons, in which the great Algerine admiral, 
Reis Hammida, was killed and his ship taken. 

Considerable effect was produced upon the Barbary pirates 
when they discovered that three vessels in the American 
fleet, the Macedonian, the Guerriere, and the Epervier, 
had been captured from the English in open fight. 

Peace was made with the Dey of Algiers; one stipulation 
was the release of ten American seamen. But the Epervier, 
on which they were embarked to return home, foundered 
in a gale soon after passing the Straits of Gibraltar. 

The conclusion of this treaty with the United States was 
followed by the expedition of Lord Exmouth, who accepted 
terms less advantageous than those that had been exacted 
by the American commander. Upon which the Dey 
thought proper to repudiate the agreement with the United 
States when it was brought back to him with the Senate's 
ratification. He was reduced to reason, however, by a 
prompt display of force, and the treaty, with many expres- 
sions of friendship, was sent on board the American flag- 
ship, duly signed. 

In the year 1830, at the close of the reign of Charles X., 
France roused herself to suppress Algerine piracy. The 
inhabitants of Algeria may be roughly said to have been 
of three races, the dominant Turks, the Arabs, descendants 
of the Saracens who had overrun the country in the tenth 
century, and the Kabyles or Berbers, the much-mixed 
descendants of an aboriginal race, converted by the invad- 
ing Arabs to Mohammedanism. 

As is ever the case, the Arabs hated and despised the 
Turks, accounting them very recreant Mohammedans. 
With regard to them and to what followed their discom- 
fiture by the French, the Arab father of Abdel Kader said : — 



392 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

"Their tyranny has cramped and curbed our energies, 
but the disorder and anarchy that has succeeded the arrival 
of the French will destroy us utterly. The bonds of society 
are broken. Every man's hand is raised against his neigh- 
bor. Our people, given up to their vile passions, are 
daily outraging the laws of God and men. At the same 
time, the evils which menace us from without are not less 
formidable than those which consume us from within." 

The Arabs themselves were divided into two classes, the 
Marabouts, or men of religion, learning, and wisdom, and 
the warriors. These classes, except in time of war, were 
by no means in accord. The military chiefs were all for 
cruelty and plunder; the Marabouts insisted only on the 
spread of their religion. 

For three years a French navy had been blockading the 
coast of Africa. The Dey, whose insolence to foreign 
diplomats we have noticed in a former chapter,^ had 
slapped the French consul in the face with his fan when 
irritated in the extreme, and no adequate apology for this 
offence had been offered. 

At this point Mehemet Ali, ruler of Egypt, wishing to 
strengthen his alliance with France, offered to invade 
Algeria, and take up the French quarrel. France could 
not allow this. The French government was spurred up to 
more vigorous measures, and announced to the Pasha of 
Egypt that she was going to purge the Mediterranean of the 
pirates that infested it. 

It seems to have been somewhat difficult, on this occa- 
sion, to get an admiral to take command of the French 
fleet, for the expedition against Algiers seemed to promise 
little credit to its commander. But at last a fleet, under 
Admiral Duperre, was fitted out at Toulon. The Dauphine 
went down to that port to see it off, and very soon news 
arrived that the city of Algiers had been taken. 

This success did not inspire the Arabs with very great 
anxiety. The French had defeated the Turks, whom they 

1 The Barbary States. 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. 393 

despised. It was only — what several times before had 
happened — a change of masters in the coast towns; but 
very soon events and proclamations put a different aspect 
on the affair. 

In Oran lived a Marabout of great sanctity, wisdom, and 
influence, named Mehi-ed-Deen. He had been much dis- 
trusted by the Turks, and alternately cajoled and maltreated 
by the Turkish Bey who governed the province of Oran. 

Mehi-ed-Deen was the father of several sons. His fourth 
son, born in 1807, was the celebrated Arab chieftain, 
Abdel Kader. A splendid horseman and a leader in all 
warlike sports, this youth was even more famed among his 
people for his learning and his piety. At the age of twelve 
he was a Taleb, that is, an approved proficient in the 
Koran and the writings of its expositors; at fourteen he 
was a Hafiz, or one who knows the whole Koran by heart. 
He was then promoted to be a religious teacher in the 
mosque, and his ambition was to be a great Marabout like 
his father. He had not only made a pilgrimage to the 
holy cities with that pious parent, but had journeyed with 
him to Bagdad to make offerings at the tomb of the patron 
Mussulman saint of his family, after whom he had been 
named Abdel Kader. 

As the French penetrated further into Algeria, disorder 
and anarchy in the country increased. Inhabitants of the 
seacoast towns who had fled from the invader were roam- 
ing about the country in terror and despair. The Arabs, 
never able to resist an opportunity to pillage, '^waylaid 
them, and robbed them without mercy. Abdel Kader and 
his brothers, with followers of their own tribe, scoured the 
plains in all directions, protecting the unfortunate fugitives 
and conducting them to places of safety." 

The principal men of several tribes consulted Mehi-ed- 
Deen as to how, under these circumstances, they should 
establish order and government. He advised them to turn 
to the only Mohammedan power capable of assisting them, 
and to put themselves under the leadership of the Emperor 



394 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

of Morocco. That potentate, Muley Abderrahman, declined 
their propositions. They then vehemently urged Mehi-ed- 
Deen to become their Sultan. He repeatedly refused the 
position. At last, in a great assembly, they cried out, 
" How long, O Mehi-ed-Deen, are we to be left without a 
leader?" and then, the chiefs placing their swords against 
his breast exclaimed, " Choose between being thyself our 
Sultan or instant death ! " 

Mehi-ed-Deen, violently agitated, but still preserving 
his presence of mind, demanded to be heard. "You all 
know," he said, "that I am a man of peace, devoting my- 
self to the worship of God. The task of ruling involves 
the use of brute force and the shedding of blood. But 
since you insist on my being your Sultan I consent, and 
abdicate in favor of my son Abdel Kader! " 

Thus on November 21, 1832, Abdel Kader was pro- 
claimed Sultan of Algeria. Not only did he command 
armies, always foremost in the fight, on his black charger, 
but he daily preached to his people, conducting classes in 
the mosque for their instruction, and stirring them to 
enthusiasm by his eloquence. 

"My great object," he said, in a proclamation, "is to 
reform and to do good as much as in me lies. My trust is 
in God, and from Him, and Him only, I expect reward 
and success ! " 

With these words he proclaimed the D jehad or Holy 
War against the Infidels. The war commenced in 1833, 
and from that time for forty years, it may be said that 
fighting never ceased between the French and the native 
population — the Arabs and Kabyles. For, though brief 
peace was occasionally made with certain chiefs, or in 
certain districts, there was always insurrection against the 
authority of the French going on in some part of the 
country. 

The occupation of Algeria during these years was purely 
military. "Punch's" celebrated picture of a few French 
colonists cultivating the ground under the guns of a strong 




ABDEL KADER. 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA, 395 

fortress, each man as he held the plough protected by a 
soldier, was hardly an exaggeration,. 

It may be remarked here, in connection with the feeling 
at this day in France regarding the foothold of England 
in Egypt, that in 1832, when it became evident that the 
French occupation of Algeria meant more than the sup- 
pression of piracy, the government of Louis Philippe 
assured the government of England that France had no 
intention of holding Algeria, but would evacuate the coun- 
try as soon as peace and good government could be restored. 
Subsequently, England acquiesced in the possession of 
Algeria by her neighbor, subject to a stipulation that France 
should not enlarge the borders of that country either by 
annexing Tunis on the east, or Morocco to the westward. 

England on her part has made no diplomatic stipulation 
with France as to her Egyptian occupation. It has been 
simply an understood thing, founded on possibly indiscreet 
remarks made in Parliament by an ex-minister and his sup- 
porters, that England would evacuate Egypt as soon as the 
withdrawal of British troops and British influence could 
take place with a reasonable prospect of leaving peace and 
good government behind. 

The French Minister in Cairo once referred to evacua- 
tion in speaking to Nubar Pasha. When that man, the 
ablest in Egypt, and not prejudiced in favor of England, 
said : " Yes, Monsieur le Ministre, and when they go three 
people will go with them, — the Khedive, you, and I." 

"So long as you say you are going," said another French 
resident in Egypt to an Englishman, " it is our nature to 
say, 'Go ! * — but if you were to say on the first of March 
that you were going on the first of April, we should all be 
on our knees to you by the 15 th of March, begging you to 
stay." 

This is par parenthese. To return to Abdel Kader. 
He was elected Sultan of Algeria by the voices of a large 
number of his countrymen, but there were others who were 
very far from acknowledging his rule. The religious 



396 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

party was inclined to give him strenuous support, but 
rapacious and ambitious men looked with jealousy on such 
an assumption of sovereignty. Were the Arab chiefs who 
had carried on for centuries a struggle against the Turkish 
Sultan and his pashas, now to accept the unbounded sway 
of a man whose claims, in their eyes, were no better than 
their own? But where no feudal influence prevailed, the 
authority of Abdel Kader was promptly and even thank- 
fully accepted. It was, however, rather as a great military 
chief than as head of a central government that he was 
generally received, and he found it often necessary to 
assert his authority among his countrymen with a strong 
hand. 

Meantime, the conquest of Algeria was far from popular 
among the French people. They found that in thirty-four 
years, i.e. from 1830 to 1864, it had cost the lives of one 
hundred and fifty thousand Frenchmen, and six hundred 
million dollars. It was perpetually said, that while the 
seacoast might be held with a view to the prevention of 
piracy, and in support of the national honor, the interior 
of the country had better be let alone. 

While this policy prevailed the French were left, by the 
tribes, in quiet possession of Algiers and other strong 
places; though Abdel Kader forbade his Arabs to sell them 
corn or cattle. 

The situation grew, at last, intolerable, and General 
Desmichels, commanding the French troops in the prov- 
ince of Oran, made pacific propositions; in consequence 
of which a treaty was drawn up between himself and Abdel 
Kader, the principal stipulations in which were, that the 
Emir should be acknowledged the independent governor of 
his native province, having his capital at Mascara, with the 
exception of three strongholds, garrisoned by the French, — 
Oran, Mostagenem, and Arzew. A monopoly in corn, for 
the supply of these French garrisons, was secured to Abdel 
Kader and his people; and this excited great opposition 
to the treaty, both in France and among some of the unruly 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. 2>97 

Arab tribes. General Desmichels was recalled, his action 
disapproved, and the French government took the earliest 
opportunity of declaring war against the man who had 
aspired to be supreme ruler in Algeria. It had been stipu- 
lated in the Desmichels treaty, that deserters on both sides 
should be given up. A whole tribe of Arabs having gone 
over to the French, Abdel Kader claimed that according 
to the terms of the treaty they should be handed over to 
him for punishment. The French naturally declined to 
take this view of the question. Abdel Kader persisted, 
saying : " My religion prohibits me from allowing a Mus- 
sulman to be under the dominion of a Christian. See 
what suits you best; otherwise the God of Battles must 
decide between us." 

The history of the war that followed belongs more to 
French history than to that of x\lgeria. It was carried on 
with barbarity and ferocity on both sides. In 1835 M. 
Thiers spoke thus of the course pursued in Algeria by the 
French government: "It is not colonization; it is not 
occupation on a large scale; it is not occupation on a 
small scale; it is not peace; it is not war; but war badly 

made." 

The French Chamber of Deputies was at last roused. 
General Clausel with a large force was sent to the field of 
action. His energy alarmed and demoralized the Arab 
-army, which had already been long in the field. Abdel 
Kader' s followers melted away from him. Mascara was 
occupied by the French, and a forced contribution of ten 
thousand francs was demanded from the inhabitants. But 
famine — in the French camp — came to the assistance of 
Abdel Kader. It is said that at this time General Cavignac 
was buying cats at forty francs apiece for his table. 

Another treaty was made with Abdel Kader, called the 
Treaty of Tafna, defining boundaries, and the Sultan (or 
Emir as he is always called by the French) acknowledged 
the sovereignty of France over its actual possessions. 
Tlemcen, which had been taken by the French, was given 



398 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

Up. Commerce was to be thenceforth free. Abdel Kader 
was at the summit of his power. 

Peace being thus concluded with the French, Abdel 
Kader was at liberty to reduce his rebellious subjects to 
obedience, while the French made a second advance on 
the strong fortress Constantine, which its Bey held out 
against them. The year before an expedition had marched 
against it, accompanied by the Duke of Orleans, and led 
by Marshal Clausel. The French had reached the walls of 
the stronghold and were then obliged to retreat, repulsed, 
not by the enemy but by the extraordinary severity of the 
weather. This second expedition, in the autumn of 1836, 
was more fortunate. The French commander in chief. 
General Dauremont, was indeed killed, and a terrible 
explosion took place which buried French and Arabs in 
one common ruin. The victory was largely due, after this 
catastrophe, to the dare-devil bravery of a young officer in 
the foreign legion, afterwards Marshal Saint-Arnaud. 

Constantine being taken, disputes speedily arose between 
Abdel Kader and the French as to the limits of their 
respective territories, and war once more broke out in 1841. 
General Bugeaud then returned to Algeria with a force of 
from eighty to a hundred thousand men. He adopted a 
new plan of campaign, dividing his force into three mov- 
able columns, and attacking Abdel Kader' s people on three 
points at once. The Due d'Aumale was with the French 
army. It had complete success. Abdel Kader' s capital, 
Mascara, was again taken. His forces dispersed. Tlemcen 
fell. Overawed and overpowered by the French, the Arabs 
and Kabyles everywhere surrendered. 

Adbel Kader took refuge in Morocco. There he raised 
a new army of Mohammedan enthusiasts. But these men 
of Morocco were not like his own Arabs. Marshal Bugeaud 
and the. Due d'Aumale fell suddenly upon his camp^ 
while a large part of his force was absent. Abdel Kader 

^ A large collection of valuable manuscripts greatly valued by Abdel 
Kader M^as destroyed on this occasion. 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. 399 

escaped with difficulty, and again sought refuge in 
Morocco. Once more he raised an army, but his hopes 
were disappointed; the Sultan of Morocco made peace 
with the French, who stipulated that he should no longer 
harbor Abdel Kader in his dominions. Then the Emir sur- 
rendered to General Lamoriciere and received his promise 
that, with his mother, wife, family, and immediate fol- 
lowers, he should be sent either to Alexandria or St. Jean 
d'Acre; his desire being to dwell in a land inhabited by 
Mohammedans. 

He was taken, however, to France and landed at Toulon, 
with thirty of his people, January 30, 1848, three weeks 
before the downfall of the Orleans dynasty. It is said that 
the Due d'Aumale remonstrated vehemently upon a breach 
of faith which seemed to violate his word. 

The French republic showed no disposition to deal 
generously with the enemy that had fallen into its hands. 
Abdel Kader and his followers who would not leave him 
were sent first to the Castle of Pau, in B(§arn, and after- 
wards to the Chateau of Amboise on the Loire, the old 
place of residence of Louis XL and of the kings of the 
House of Valois. One of my friends, who was at Amboise 
during their imprisonment, told me it was piteous to wit- 
ness the utter despondency of these poor creatures, who 
refused all offers to set them free if they would but aban- 
don their imprisoned master. There were several cases 
of suicide among them. Abdel Kader himself was rarely 
seen abroad. He lived shut up with his family, devoting 
himself to study and to prayer. In vain he pleaded to the 
republic the promise made to him by General Lamoriciere. 
That promise was ignored by the French government even 
when Lamoriciere was Minister of War. 

At first Abdel Kader was allowed to receive visitors, 
and many Frenchmen of distinction flocked to see him. 
Among them was Monsignor Derpuch, the French bishop 
of Algiers to whom General Daumas, who had charge of the 
prisoners, addressed this letter : — 



400 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

" You will find Abdel Kader greater and more extraordinary 
in his adversity than he was in his prosperity. Still, as ever, he 
towers to the height of his position. You will find him mild, 
simple, affectionate, modest, resigned, never complaining ; excus- 
ing his enemies, even those at whose hands he may yet have 
much to suffer, — and never permitting evil to be spoken of them 
in his presence. Mussulmans and Christians alike, however justly 
he might complain of them, have found his forgiveness. In going 
to console such a noble, such an exalted character, you will add 
another work of holiness to those by which your life is already 
distinguished." 

The same character is drawn of Abdel Kader by all who, 
having been brought in contact with him, have recorded 
their impressions. Even prisoners led captives to his 
camp, who, as "dogs of Christians," received every manner 
of cruelty and insult from his followers, found him courte- 
ous, kindly, desirous to provide for their comfort and their 
safety, though the moment they were out of his presence 
the Arabs, who, in all matters not military, seem to have 
been little subordinate to his commands and to his wishes, 
renewed their blows, insults, and revilings, not sparing 
worse atrocities, especially where women were concerned. 

Death was busy among the followers of Abdel Kader at 
Pau and at Amboise. The climate and despondency told 
heavily upon them. He lost a son, a daughter, and a 
nephew. His wife, mother, and mother-in-law were with 
him. The former, Leila Heira, who was also his cousin, 
he had married young, and to her he was ever affectionate 
and strictly faithful. 

At last came to Abdel Kader a change as joyful as 
it was unexpected. Louis Napoleon, when Prince Presi- 
dent, remembering well his own days of captivity at Ham, 
being at Blois, announced his intention of paying Abdel 
Kader a visit. On his way thither he forwarded to him a 
little note written in pencil. 

" Abdel Kader : I am coming to announce to you your lib- 
erty. You will be conducted to Broussa in the Sultan's terri- 
tory as soon as the necessary arrangements can be made. The 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. 40I 

French government will give you a pension worthy of your 
former rank. For a long time your captivity has caused me real 
distress. It constantly reminded me that the government that 
preceded mine had not fulfilled its engagements toward an 
unfortunate enemy ; and in my eyes a great nation is humiliated 
when it so far distrusts its own power as to break its promise. 
Generosity is always the best counsellor, and I am persuaded 
that your residence in Turkey will in nowise affect the tran- 
quillity of my possessions in Algeria. Your religion, as well as 
mine, inculcates submission to the decrees of Providence. Now 
if France is supreme in Algeria, it is because God has so willed 
it ; and the nation will never renounce the conquest. You have 
been the enemy of France, but I nevertheless am ready to do 
ample justice to your courage, your character, and your resigna- 
tion in misfortune. I consequently feel it a point of honor to put 
an end to your imprisonment, and to place a complete reliance 
on your word." 

The Prince President was received at Amboise with 
demonstrations of the most heartfelt thanks. The old 
mother of Abdel Kader begged to be allowed to see one 
who had spread such joy and consolation through her house- 
hold, and covered him with benedictions. 

Abdel Kader, before leaving for his retreat in a land of 
his coreligionists, went to Paris, in October, 1852, where 
he was received by both emperor and people with many 
honors. 

He was shown the public edifices in Paris, but was par- 
ticularly interested in the churches, saying, on entering 
the Church of the Madeleine, to the priest who accom- 
panied him: "When I first began my struggle with the 
French I thought they were a people without religion. I 
have found out my mistake. Such churches convince me 
of my error." 

His reception in Turkey was far from being cordial, as 
his reception had been, after his liberation, in France. 
The old scorn of the Turk for an Arab lost no time in dis- 
playing itself. The building assigned him for his resi- 
dence was a ruin. He bought a farm near it, however, to 
which he went for change of air from time to time. In 

2D 



402 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

1855, after an earthquake which laid half Broussa in ruins, 
he was permitted to remove to Damascus. The Druses of 
the Lebanon hailed him with enthusiasm on his journey 
through their country, and on entering Damascus he 
received an ovation. 

He soon settled himself in his own house, surrounded by 
his followers, whom he maintained out of the liberal pen- 
sion (twenty thousand dollars) allowed him by the Emperor 
Napoleon; and the Turkish authorities paid no further 
attention to him. 

The year after he settled in Damascus occurred the ter- 
rible massacre of Christians in that city. 

"The Christians of Syria," says one who lived for years 
among them, " have ever been viewed by the Turks with 
gloomy jealousy. They are all called the 'key to the 
Franks.' The Turks imagine them to be ever ready to 
welcome and aid a Frank invading force; furnishing it with 
supplies, and in every way initiating it into the land's 
capabilities and resources. The increase of the Christian 
population, its wealth, and its prosperity, are to the Turks 
a perpetual source of exasperation." 

The Hatt Homayun, a firman put forth by the Sultan in 
obedience to the Treaty of Paris in 1856, had excited 
hopes among the Christians of civil, military, and political 
equality, which made them, in the opinion of the Turks, 
somewhat insolent and presuming. The Druses were insti- 
gated to rise against the Christians. The Turkish troops 
and officers assisted and encouraged them. The Lebanon 
became a vast scene of slaughter and conflagration. 

The spirit of massacre spread to Damascus. In vain 
Abdel Kader had used his popularity with the Druses of 
the Lebanon to stay their fury. In vain he sought an 
interview with the Turkish governor of Damascus and 
implored him to take measures for the protection of the 
Christians. On July 9, i860, the massacre commenced. 
At once Abdel Kader sallied forth, calling on his Algerines 
to follow him. There were, at that time, about one thou- 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. 403 

sand Algerine exiles in Damascus. They hurried through 
the flaming streets of the Christian quarter, calling on sur- 
vivors to come forth: "For we are Abdel Kader's men, 
and are here to protect you ! " In vain the Turks insulted 
the Arab chieftain. "What! you," they cried, "the great 
slayer of Christians ! —you, come out to prevent us slaying 
them in our turn! " 

There was no place of refuge for Christians in Damascus 
but his house and its courtyards. With him the European 
consuls and their families sought refuge. It was calculated 
that fifteen thousand Christians, including all the repre- 
sentatives of European powers, owed their lives to Abdel 
Kader's energetic personal exertions for ten days. 

The western world, fully occupied with its own affairs, 
heard little of Abdel Kader from that day forward. He 
had once said to the Bishop of Algiers: "As you may have 
discovered from our conversation, I was not born to be 
a warrior. It seems to me I never ought to have been one 
for a single day. Yet I have borne arms all my life. By 
a wholly unforeseen course of circumstances I was thrown 
completely out of the career pointed out to me by my 
birth, my education, and my predilection — a career I 
ardently long to resume, and to which I never cease pray- 
ing God to allow me to return at the close of my laborious 
years." 

That career was the career of a religious teacher. He 
desired to attain to the highest dignity of a devout Mussul- 
man, that which entitles him to be called the " Fellow of 
the Prophet." 

To attain this it was necessary he should reside, for many 
months, at Mecca. Thither he went in January, 1863. 
He gave himself up to his devotions, and in July, 1864, 
he returned to his family at Damascus. Strange to say, he 
was a freemason; and in Alexandria, on his return home, 
he added to the privilege of being called the " Fellow of the 
Prophet," the time-honored title of a "free and accepted 
mason." 



404 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

In 1873 he seems to have been again at Mecca, and his 
death, in that year, was reported. The report was false, 
however. He died at his home in Syria in 1883, by no 
means an aged man, being seventy-six years old. 

The French continued a desultory war with Arab tribes 
until 187 1, when, after a general insurrection had been 
put down and punished, — a rising consequent on the with- 
drawal of French troops for service in the Franco-Prussian 
war, and against the commune, — it was decided to aban- 
don military rule and place the country under civil admin- 
istration; giving the privileges of French citizens to such 
natives as would declare themselves faithful to France, 
Since then the country has enjoyed comparative tranquil- 
lity, and with peace has come prosperity and vast schemes 
for internal improvement. 

Algeria has about two thousand miles of railway, and a 
population of rather more than four million; one-eighth of 
this consists of Europeans, of whom Frenchmen are about 
one-half. Large grants of land in Algeria were offered by 
the French government in September, 1871, to any inhabi- 
tants of Alsace or Lorraine who might choose to settle 
there. Many availed themselves of this and became genu- 
ine colonists. 

There have been, during the last decade, two great 
projects conceived by the French in connection with 
Algeria; of which, although they are only projects and 
may never be realized, it may be well here to say a few 
words. One is the formation of a great inland sea in the 
Sahara; the other, the construction of a railroad reaching 
from Tunis or Algiers to Lake Chad and Timbuctoo. It 
may be in connection with this project that the French 
have recently reopened the port of Bizerta in Tunis, the 
most northern town of Africa, on the site of the ancient 
Syrian colony of Hippo Zaritus, the harbor of which was 
considered by the ancients one of the safest and finest in 
the world. The French have now opened for navigation 
a canal connecting the port with the lake of Bizerta, an 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. 405 

interior basin, large as Paris itself, where the entire navies 
of all nations could safely ride at anchor. 

South of the Atlas Mountains is the Sahara, a region not 
as vast as the Great Desert of that name which used upon 
our maps to monopolize all Central Africa, but a sort of 
hinterland of Algeria stretching south of Tripoli to the 
mouth of the Senegal. It is inhabited for the most part 
by nomadic tribes called Touaregs, descended (though 
their blood has become much mixed) from the tribes who 
fought the Romans, and were crowded by the Saracens 
back into the Sahara. 

Algeria is geographically divided into three regions : the 
Tell or coast-land, which reaches to the first range of the 
Atlas; the second region, which reaches to the edge of 
the great sands; and the Sahara.^ The "second region" 
is known among the French as the hauts plateaux. In it 
are the ruins of Roman cities, some of whose names are 
now unknown to us. In one of these Roman towns, which 
was destroyed by Genseric, king of the Vandals, who 
landed in Africa a.d. 429, a recent traveller found the 
remains of a Christian church; a slab of red stone with 
the cross, dove, and vine beautifully carved upon it; a 
triumphal arch dedicated to the emperors Valens and Va- 
lentinian ; innumerable specimens of pottery, and old coins 
of all sizes lying loose upon the sand. 

Tunis lies between the province of Constantine in Algeria 
and the Gulf of Kabes or Gabes, south of which, and south 
of Tunis, there exist vast depressions of the soil, the sup- 
posed bed of some mighty inland sea. The idea advanced 
is to cut a canal about two hundred and fifty miles in length 
which would let the waters of the Mediterranean run from 
the Gulf of Gabes into their ancient bed, which would thus 

1 The attention of the Geographical Society in Paris has been called 
lately to Saharan emeralds. It is thought that a complete explora- 
tion of the mountains of the Touareg and their dependent valleys 
would result in the rediscovery of the emeralds of our museums. 
Colonel Flatters found a great number of emeralds, several of them 
as large as eggs. — HAfrique. 



406 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

become once more a sea about fifteen times the size of 
the lake of Geneva. It would turn a vast district, now 
unhealthy and unprofitable, into a salubrious and fertile 
region; would promote commerce with the interior of 
Africa, and would cost, according to the late M. Ferdinand 
de Lesseps (whose calculations, however, are not always to 
be trusted), about thirty millions of dollars. 

The boundaries of the "sphere of French influence" in 
Central Africa are, at present, so undetermined that it is 
hard to say where the hinterland of Algeria ends, or where 
the French Soudan, the French Congo and Senegal begin. 
According to an agreement between France and England 
in 1890, the French sphere reaches to Lake Chad, a small 
part of whose western shore belongs to the Royal Niger 
Company, which owns the mouths of the Niger. The 
head-waters of that river are in the French Soudan, together 
with all the valleys and basins drained by the affluents of 
the Senegal and Upper Niger. In the French Soudan, also, 
is Timbuctoo, which once was depicted on our maps as the 
central spot of Central Africa. 

French "influence" is thus continuous from Algeria to 
the head-waters of the Niger, but as yet the only French- 
men in French Soudan or the Great Desert are roving 
explorers or military men charged with scientific, official, 
or diplomatic missions. 

Ten years ago Timbuctoo, though the chief emporium of 
commerce between northern and central Africa, had been 
visited by only five European travellers, though its caravans, 
sent semiannually from Mogador, in Morocco, have been 
large and very valuable. One, for instance, in 1887, con- 
sisted of six hundred and fifty camels, fifty of which 
carried water, and six hundred merchandise. It was 
attended by a powerful escort, and the value of its goods 
was estimated at one hundred and seventy thousand 
dollars. 

The first European who gave the world any written 
account of Timbuctoo was a Frenchman, named Caillie, 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. 407 

who reached it in 1828.^ Two former explorers, a French 
sailor and a Scotchman, Major Laing, met tragic deaths. 
M. Caillie was stimulated by a prize of ten thousand francs, 
offered by the French Geographical Society to whoever 
would bring evidence of having reached Timbuctoo. He 
could speak Arabic; in disguise he made his way from the 
seacoast, and returned in safety to Europe, but no one 
followed his steps for five and twenty years, when the 
German traveller. Dr. Barth, reached Timbuctoo, re- 
mained there five months, and gave the public a complete 
account of the city that had been once known as the 
Queen of the Desert. His narrative was corroborated, 
after the lapse of another quarter of a century, by Dr. 
Lenz, who was also a German. 

Towards the close of 1893 a French column, three or 
four hundred strong, with a small battery, took possession 
of Timbuctoo, to the great indignation of the desert tribes, 
who looked upon it as their holy city, and on its chief 
mosque (built in 1327) as a place of great sanctity. 

Reinforcements were sent, under the command of Colonel 
Bonnier, but the expedition was surprised by the Touaregs 
and cut off, losing nine French officers, two non-commis- 
sioned officers, and sixty-nine men. The rest were forced 
to retreat, but the French have continued to hold the city. 

At present it seems as if there were small chance for the 
terminus of a trans-Saharan railway at Timbuctoo. The 
idea of the projectors of this road has been to build it 
from Algeria to Lake Chad, with, eventually, a branch to 
Timbuctoo. Stanley has told us that the future of Africa 
will depend on whatever nation first may build its railroads. 
Should the French maintain permanent possession of Tim- 
buctoo — the great trade mart for the interior of Africa — 

1 In the days of my childhood little people had few story-books. I read 
Rollin's "Ancient History" for amusement, Captain Cook's "Voyages," 
Captain Hall's "Travels," ''Rasselas," and "The Rambler." But my 
favorite books (next to the " Tales of a Grandfather ") were the narrative 
of this Rene Cailhe, and Maundrell's " Travels in Palestine." — E. W. L. 



408 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

their first object would be to open a line of communication 
with the seacoast, not only for purposes of commerce, but 
to relieve themselves of the present enormous cost of the 
ravitaillenient — that is, the forwarding of necessary supplies. 

There are but three ways in which the products of the 
interior could reach the sea, besides the present route by 
caravan to Mogador, which involves fifty-five days of 
dangerous desert travel, and would lead only to Morocco, 
with little benefit to the French. A route could be made 
by a railroad to the Senegal; another by boats of light 
draught on one of the branches of the Niger, connecting 
with another line of railway. But both these routes would 
be unhealthy, and could be made practicable only at great 
expense. 

The route by railroad to Algiers or Bizerta would be two 
thousand miles long. The country is healthy, the line 
would be easy to construct, but it would have to pass 
through lands inhabited by hostile nomads, and might 
require a long line of military posts for its protection. 

A company has been already formed in France for the 
promotion of this project; but at present the idea of a 
national enterprise, undertaken by a private company, is 
new to the French. They are not in the habit of doing 
anything without an official subsidy. "The English push 
their way into Africa — merchants, engineers, surveyors — 
well-armed, and supplied by syndicates, and their own 
government only intervenes to protect them from foreign 
interference and to reap, later on, the fruit of their labors." 

Timbuctoo lies north of the Niger, on one of its small 
tributary streams. It is of great value as a commercial 
depot. Goods are brought on camels from the north, but 
camels cannot travel south of Timbuctoo. Indeed, the 
country round that city is so unsuited to them that their 
owners make all haste to reload and turn their faces home- 
ward. At Timbuctoo, or rather at Kabara, its port upon 
the Niger, merchandise is shipped on boats of light 
draught and sent down to other markets on the river. 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA, 409 

Timbuctoo is a city of merchants. All its inhabitants 
are concerned in trade. It is estimated that it contains 
eight thousand traders. Caravans bring from the north, 
European goods, cottons, mostly from English or German 
manufactories, paper in reams, ^ papier mache snuff-boxes, 
spices, especially cloves and pepper, silks, beads for 
embroidery or necklaces, perfumes, knives, needles, scis- 
sors, looking-glasses, tea, sugar, teapots and other crockery. 
Morocco sends salt, tobacco. Oriental robes, and silks from 
the Levant. The caravans return loaded with agricultural 
products, kola nuts, dried fish, dried onions, honey and 
beeswax, ginger, dye-woods, incense, soap, hides, cheap to- 
bacco, an excellent kind of stout cotton much prized by the 
desert tribes, cotton of a finer fabric used for turbans, blank- 
ets, — blue, white, and variegated, — from certain districts 
in the interior, straw hats, pottery, ostrich feathers, ele- 
phants' tusks, gold and iron bars smelted in native furnaces. 

Last December (1894) two thousand camels arrived at 
Timbuctoo, each laden with about three hundred pounds 
of merchandise. December, January, and July are the 
principal months for the arrival of caravans. For a little 
while after the French occupation this traffic diminished, 
but confidence is now restored. 

It is claimed by French explorers that the lands watered 
by the Niger are as fertile as those watered by the Nile. 
The Niger, like the Nile, annually overflows its banks, and 
a system of irrigation would develop immense possibilities 
in the way of agriculture, while the high lands are admi- 
rably adapted for raising sheep, horses, and cattle. This 
country was once populous and prosperous. A century 
back Mungo Park and other travellers found it so, but in 
those days the present French Soudan was, to a certain 
extent, subject to Morocco. Early in this century the war- 
like Foulahs drove the Moors out of Timbuctoo and the 
lands that are fertilized by the overflow of the Niger, and 

1 The cost of transportation is so great that in Timbuctoo paper 
sells, it is said, at ten cents a sheet. 



41 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

from that time to the present incessant wars have desolated 
all that part of Africa. The Foulahs had hardly estab- 
lished themselves in Timbuctoo, when they were driven out 
by Touareg tribes, who, fighting incessantly, held it till 
the French troops took possession. During these years 
agriculture was suspended, caravans were frequently cut 
off, and Kabara, the port of Timbuctoo upon the Niger, 
was deserted. 

Timbuctoo lies not very far from the boundary that sepa- 
rates French Soudan from the " sphere " of the Royal Niger 
Company. Towards the east the boundaries of the French 
Soudan are, at present, undefinable. Between it and the 
province of Darfour, wrenched from Egypt by the Mahdi, 
lies the great negro sultanate of Wadai, now under the 
spiritual influence of the Prophet of Jerboub. 

French Soudan and the French Sahara are, for the most 
part, inhabited by the Touaregs, men of Berber descent, 
of whom the grandson of Marshal Ney has recently given 
us an account in the "Cosmopolitan." They have an evil 
reputation among travellers for the murder and plunder of 
all who intrude into their country. In 1874 they murdered 
a whole party of Cardinal Lavigerie's White Fathers, and 
subsequently killed Colonel Flatters, a French officer who 
commanded an exploring expedition. It was they who, 
early last year (1894), attacked Colonel Bonnier and his 
people. Besides these, many others have fallen victims to 
their lances and their knives. They seem resolved to keep 
the road to the equator closed to all white men. They 
are, nominally, Mohammedans, but their forefathers were 
Christians, before they were assailed by Saracen invaders 
who overran the West African portion of the Roman 
Empire. 

Their religion, however, is very nominal. They neither 
perform their prayers like true Mohammedans nor prac- 
tise polygamy. Their wealth is in their camels, which are 
extraordinarily swift. Their women go unveiled, but the 
men veil their faces, leaving little to be seen but their 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. 41 1 

eyes. One of their names in native speech is "Red Men." 
This is supposed to denote that their race had once red 
hair, but their blood has been so much mixed with that of 
Arabs and negroes, that their hair (what little is seen of 
it, for they conceal both head and beard) is dark, and their 
complexion is bronze-color. They use no firearms, but 
each man carries a perfect arsenal of other weapons on his 
person. The tribes that live nearest to Algeria, the Azdjir 
Touaregs, have entered into friendly relations with the 
French, and have promised to protect their railroad should 
it be constructed. They are a tall, shapely people, grave, 
silent, and, like our own red men, profess disdain or 
indifference to the novelties of civilization. Some tribes, 
called Praying Tribes, are looked down upon by other clans 
whose men are warriors, but the Praying Tribes carry on 
trade, and attend to commerce and agriculture. This 
division of labor is not unlike that which existed between 
the religious orders and the feudal lords in the Middle 
Ages. 

" The Praying Tribes pay a rather heavy tribute in cattle, slaves, 
and dates to the warriors ; but, this settled, they enjoy absolute 
freedom. They spend much time in restoring peace among the 
nobles, or in conducting caravans, and are willing to establish 
friendly relations with foreigners. Such are the Touaregs, those 
strange nomads unexpugnable in the desert fastnesses which 
they have inherited from time immemorial, and where, till now, 
they have confined themselves. This state of things seems to 
be passing away, and, at any rate, it is soon to be modified. 

" It is claimed by geographers, botanists, ethnologists, and 
zoologists that North Africa is an integral part of Europe, and 
has nothing at all to do with the barbarous Africa of the negro 
race. ' The existing fauna and flora of the Atlas region,' says 
Mr. Grant Allen, ' in which I venture to include the human 
inhabitants, entered the country from the north, and are of 
European origin. Africa proper begins south of the Sahara. 
Even the seasons north of that point are European, spring, sum- 
mer, autumn, and winter. After passing into French Soudan, 
the seasons are the rainy and the dry.' " 

West of the French Soudan lies Senegal, a land in which 



412 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

France planted her flag as far back as early in the seven- 
teenth century; but, except building the town of St. Louis 
on the coast, she had done little for its improvement until 
1852, when General Failherbe was sent out to administer. 
At that time even St. Louis was menaced by the native 
kings; now the country is open to civilization and com- 
merce. The French have a line of fortified posts along the 
valleys of the Senegal, and a railroad running a consider- 
able distance into the interior. In 1887 a gun-boat, under 
command of Lieutenant Caron, went up the Niger to 
within sight of Timbuctoo; and General Failherbe has 
been enthusiast enough, in speaking of the province he 
has redeemed from barbarism, to invite summer tourists 
to visit it instead of spending their vacation in the Pyre- 
nees. The round trip, he tells them, with ten days for 
sport in Senegal, could be made from France in thirty 
days. 

South of the French Soudan is French Congo. The 
limits of both French Soudan and French Congo are, at 
present, ill-defined. In 1885 a treaty was made between 
France and the Congo Free State to settle the limits of 
their respective spheres. Diplomatic knowledge of these 
regions was then founded on the explorations of M. de 
Brazza, the French rival of Mr. Stanley. By this treaty the 
fourth degree of north latitude and the seventeenth degree 
of east longitude were to be respectively the northern and 
western limits of Belgian territory, exclusive of the "pan- 
handle " towards the mouth of the Congo. In other words, 
future surveys were to fix the exact boundaries as nearly as 
possible according to these lines. It was vaguely supposed 
that the river Licona, entering the Congo (as was assumed) 
exactly on the seventeenth parallel, would be a suitable 
boundary. But a month after the treaty was signed the 
river Ubangi (or Mobangi, or Oubangi), a far larger and 
more navigable stream than the Licona, was explored by an 
English missionary. Its mouth was found to be exactly 
where De Brazza' s map had placed that of the Licona, and 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. 413 

the French claimed it to be their boundary. In 1887 the 
Congo Free State ceded to France the large extent of ter- 
ritory thus claimed. There have been disputes, besides, 
concerning the northern boundary of Congo Free State, all 
arising out of imperfect geographical knowledge when the 
protocols and treaties were put on paper. When Congo 
Free State was organized by the Congress of Berlin it was 
stipulated that, should future differences arise about its 
boundaries which could not be settled amicably, the matter 
should be referred for adjustment to the other powers. 
Differences concerning boundary lines have arisen with Port- 
ugal and England, but in each case the parties have settled 
these disputes by mutual concessions. This, in the case 
of the Congo State and France, has not yet been done. 
Boundary is, however, not the only cause of contention 
between France and the Belgian colony. In 1890 the 
latter made an agreement with the Imperial British East 
African Company, which was not assumed by the British 
government until 1894. By it the Congo Free State was 
to extend north to Lado, on the western bank of the Nile, 
north of Lake Albert. When the British government took 
the territorial jurisdiction of the East African Company off 
its hands, it leased to the Congo Free State, during King 
Leopold's lifetime, the equatorial province of Bahr Gazal 
(the region once governed by poor Lupton), receiving in 
exchange from the Congo Free State a broad road from 
Lake Tanganyika to Lake Albert Edward, through a country 
which had hitherto formed a barrier to England's direct 
line of future communication between the Cape and the 
Nile. 

But, in making this arrangement, England had consulted 
neither France nor Germany. It had seemed to her 
foreign office that it was a matter between herself and the 
Belgian State. Both powers, however, intervened, and so 
successfully, that King Leopold asked leave to retire from 
his engagement. The road from Tanganyika northward 
has likewise been given up, and Congo Free State retains 



414 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

only a small part of the territory she would gladly have 
taken upon lease, and which she would have developed 
jointly with England, giving both countries access to the 
Albert Nyanza and the equatorial waters of the Nile. 

Germany respects boundaries, and since she would not 
give her assent to the above arrangement, it was felt that 
it was neighborly and prudent, as she occupies lands closely 
bordering on the "sphere of English influence," to avoid 
a cause of quarrel. But it is hard to understand what 
claim France has to interfere in the matter. The territory 
leased to the Congo Free State lies outside the limit diplo- 
matically assigned to French influence. Up to 1894 France 
had never manifested any intention of claiming an interest 
in the basin of the Upper Nile or in the equatorial region. 
The king of the Belgians, and Germany, and Italy had, in 
1890, recognized that that portion of Africa might be con- 
sidered to be under British influence, and England and the 
Congo Free State conceived themselves justified in making 
a treaty calculated to extend civilization and promote the 
welfare of the Belgian State. 

The Free State retains Lado and some portion of terri- 
tory along the shore of the Albert Lake, while an English 
expedition was sent at once to Wadelai, where, with the 
full consent of the sheikh, it raised the British flag. 
The French, meantime, despatched an expeditionary force, 
under an able African explorer. Colonel Monteil, to raise 
the tricolor in the Bahr Gazal. 

It has been asserted by France that the equatorial prov- 
inces abandoned by Egypt in 1883 are derelict, and may 
be taken possession of by whoever chooses to occupy them. 
To this the English oppose the recognition of- their prior 
claim by Belgium, Italy, and Germany; propinquity to these 
possessions, and a previous interest taken in those regions; 
besides which, France is not prepared in any sense to 
occupy those provinces. 

Another argument put forth by Frenchmen is, that if the 
provinces belong to anybody they belong to Egypt, and if 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. 4 1 5 

to Egypt then to Turkey. It is added that by the Treaty 
of Paris, no great power was to annex any part of the Turk- 
ish Empire without the consent of the others. 

To this the answer is twofold. In no treaty or official 
document has Turkey ever asserted any claim to the Egyp- 
tian Soudanese provinces. They were not a part of Egypt, 
they were a conquest made by the Khedive; or, admitting 
that they formed part of the Turkish Empire, there is a 
tu quoqjie argument, since France has had no scruple in 
annexing Tunis, which was certainly more a part of the Sul- 
tan's African dominions than the Bahr Gazal in Equatoria. 
The matter is still under the consideration of cabinets and 
diplomatists. In good time we shall know what children 
call "the end of it." Meantime, nothing Englishmen 
could do or say would be likely to affect the feelings of 
French chauvinists.^ The land in dispute, the Bahr Gazal, 
is that where the tributaries of the Nile on its west bank 
rise and flow northward and the tributaries of the Congo 
flow west and south. England makes no secret of her 
intention to have and to hold the valley of the Nile. Con- 
trol of the water supply of the Nile is of the last impor- 
tance to the power that holds Egypt. This valley lies 
within the recognized sphere of British influence, and it is 
certain that that power will not give it up to the French. 
Meantime, there are vast territories unappropriated by any 
European power lying contiguous to French Soudan and to 
French Congo, though these are Mohammedan sultanates ^ 
with settled governments and a very considerable share of 
semi-civilization. 

The French are credited with an ambition to form a 

1 The words chauvinist, chauvinism come from a character in a 
French play wherein M. Chauvin figures as a fanatic in matters of 
patriotism, eager to take offence where no offence could have been 
meant; and on all occasions clamorously announcing himself the 
champion of France, ready to do or dare anything in the cause of 
national honor. 

2 Sultanates are Mohammedan, kingdoms pagan, when speaking 
of Africa. 



41 6 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

North African Empire of immense extent, stretching from 
the mouth of the Senegal to the shores of the Red Sea, and 
thence stretching out its hand to the French settlement 
of Obok, in Arabia, with, possibly, ulterior designs. The 
possession of Madagascar may form part of this system of 
colonial extension. But the attention of England is now 
fully aroused. Both Liberals and Conservatives hold 
themselves pledged to block the realization of this project. 
The London "Spectator " (July 6, 1895) says, in a notice of 
Captain Lugard's recent article on "England and France 
in the Nile Valley": — 

" No doubt our English claim is diplomatically sound, but we 
must consider more than diplomatic claims, hovv^ever good. We 
must provide against those diplomatic claims being acted upon 
in such a way as to bring us into conflict with France, and prov- 
ing a source of grave embarrassment. France, though she does 
not venture actually to repudiate our claims, does not admit them. 
Under these circumstances we must proceed to put our claims 
into action. It may be safe to leave a piece of valuable prop- 
erty lying about on the roadside when no one thinks of disput- 
ing the right of possession. When that right is disputed, the 
best, indeed the only way of avoiding the risk of an ugly quarrel 
is to take actual possession, — to have the valuable possession in 
our hands. If we had begun this operation five years ago we 
should not now be worried by the fear of friction with France. 
Unfortunately we did not look ahead, but were content to drift. 
Still, better late than never. '^ 

The latest news from the Upper Nile and the lakes 
Albert and Victoria informs us that an English expedition 
started north about eight months ago from Uganda It 
passed through Unyoro, where the English have now estab- 
lished three military stations, and proceeded on a steamer 
of light draught up the Albert Nyanza. Pausing at Wadelai, 
the leaders learned that the dervishes had established an 
advanced post at Rejaf, their former station on the Upper 
Nile. Rejaf is south of Lado, between that place and Daiil6, 
which was the furthest point reached by the expedition on 
the 15th of January, 1895. The navigation there became 
too difficult, and they made their way back to the Albert 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. ^I'J 

Lake. We have since heard that the Belgians at Lado have 
encountered and routed the dervishes at Rejaf. 

Major Cunningham, commander of the Enghsh expedition, 
returned to Unyoro, having on his way fought a severe battle 
with Kabba Rega, whom he routed, and drove into exile. He 
lost, however, an efficient Enghsh officer in the engagement, 
and was himself badly wounded. 

The enemies of the Khalifa Abdullah appear to be closing 
round him. The Enghsh are in a position to attack him from 
the north ; the Belgians are already at war with him ; the Ital- 
ians are strengthening their armies to oppose him in the east. 
Should Sheikh Senoussi of Jerboub, his rival in spiritual 
influence, stir up the negro sultans on the west to attack 
him, he would find himself in the midst of a circle of foes. 

The various little colonies of European powers, which, 
wedgelike, stud the western coast of Africa, from French 
Senegal to the French Congo, are Gambia, Sierra Leone, 
the Gold Coast (including Cape Coast Castle), and Lagos, 
which are British, together with the Oil Rivers or Old Cala- 
bar, which is an English protectorate. There are, besides, 
French, German, and Portuguese trading stations, and the 
little Africo-American Republic of Liberia; there are, like- 
wise, the German Cameroons, and the large territory ad- 
ministered by the Royal Niger Company. France, during 
the past ten years, has been absorbing the hinterland of all 
these states, concerning which, as regards the Cameroons, 
she is still in dispute with Germany. Her power now 
restricts the trade of these coast settlements, and blocks 
any advance that they may wish to make into the interior. 

The possessions of England, Germany, Portugal, and 
Spain upon the Guinea coast are hardly to be called 
colonies. They are, for the most part, trading settlements, 
in which the products of the interior are collected and 
exchanged for European goods. Unhappily, in spite of 
the great convention held at Brussels in 1892, to take inter- 
national steps for the suppression of the slave-trade, the 
liquor traffic, and the sale of firearms and ammunition to 

2£ 



41 8 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

the natives, a great trade in such articles is still carried on 
by the English on the west coast, and thence slave-raiders 
in Central Africa draw indirectly their supplies. The 
imports of these things in one year (189 2-1 893) amounted 
to one and one-half million gallons of cheap liquor, sixty- 
two thousand two hundred and seventy-two guns, and over 
half a million pounds of powder. " It is true that this 
import, prior to April, 1892, the date of the ratification 
of the Brussels Act, was not an absolute breach of inter- 
national treaty, but its continuation since that date is an 
absolute violation of the most solemn pledges."^ 

The west coast of Africa has been frequented by Euro- 
peans since it was first explored by the Portuguese, shortly 
before the discovery of America by Columbus. In the 
seventeenth century all the maritime nations of Europe, 
except Spain, had forts or factories on the coast, whence 
they supplied slaves for their plantations in America. 
Within the last ten years France has been unceasing in her 
efforts to found a great African Empire; she is ambitious 
to extend it from the Mediterranean to the Congo. South 
of Tripoli and east of the vaguely defined limits of the 
French "sphere of influence" in the western Soudan, the 
central part of Central Africa is very little known. 

The first traveller who seems to have penetrated into the 
equatorial forest of the west coast hinterland was M. Paul 
du Chaillu, who, between 1855 and 1865, spent five years 
there. His accounts of almost impenetrable forests, 
dwarfs, cannibals, and gorillas, were received by the pub- 
lic with incredulity. Time has vindicated his veracity 
as it has done that of Herodotus. He found negro tribes 
living in neat villages, expert hunters, eager for trade, 
and skillful workers in iron. A piece of advice, given 
to him by an African chief, was very useful to him on his 
journey: — 

1 " In Nyasaland and British East Africa the British have not imported, 
so far as I know, one single pint of intoxicating liquor for sale to the 
natives." — Captain F. D. Lugard. 




PAUL DU CHAILLU. 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. ' 419 

"Now listen to what I say — you will visit many strange 
tribes. If you see on a road or in the streets of a vil- 
lage a fine bunch of plantains with ground nuts lying by 
its side, do not touch them; leave that village at once; 
this is a tricky village, for the people are on the watch to 
see what you will do with them. If the people of any 
village tell you to go and catch fowls and goats, or to cut 
plantains for yourself, say to them: 'Strangers do not help 
themselves. It is the duty of the host to catch the goat or 
fowl, and to cut the plantains, and bring the present to the 
house that has been given to the guest. ' I tell you these 
things that you may journey in safety." 

Du Chaillu travelled without tent and without baggage, 
with only seven followers. "Mr. Stanley, on the other 
hand," he says, "was, practically, at the head of a small 
army, 'tied to time,' and hampered by the responsibilities 
of feeding his numerous followers, of transporting his valu- 
able stores, and above all, of fulfilling within a limited time 
his all-important mission." But M. du Chaillu did not 
penetrate to the negro Mohammedan sultanates which 
occupy the centre of Africa. 

There is almost universal testimony to the great change 
for the better produced among savage tribes by the adop- 
tion of Islamism. They are taught that there is but one 
God; they learn the value of prayer; and they are instructed 
in the laws contained in the ten commandments. The 
Mohammedan prohibition of wine is strictly observed by 
all the proselytes of Islam, and at least the regulated 
polygamy of Mussulmans is better than the negro plural- 
ity of wives. Mohammedanism inculcates cleanliness, 
decency, and industry. It does away with cannibalism, 
fetishism, human sacrifices, and the negro trial by ordeal. 
It is matter of general observation among travellers that the 
native followers of Islamism acquire dignity of character, 
sobriety, and self-control. On the other hand, Moham- 
medanism is the uncompromising enemy of Christianity. 
" The savage who becomes a Moslem will remain a Moslem; 



420 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY, 

and whatever control over a barbarous or semi-barbarous 
people Islam gets, it keeps." 

Dr. Blyden, the colored explorer and philologist, 
doe« not hesitate to say : " I believe that Islam has done 
for vast tribes in Africa what Christianity in the hands of 
Europeans has not yet done. It has cast out the ignorance 
of God, the vices of drunkenness and gambling, and has 
introduced customs which subserve for the people the 
highest purposes of growth and self-preservation." 

Yet this very improvement builds up a strong barrier 
against the advance of Christianity, and the sympathies of 
all Mohammedans are in favor of slavery. In domestic 
life the Mohammedan is, in general, considerate and kindly 
to his slaves, patriarchal in his family, as Abraham himself 
may have been, but he sees no reason to oppose slave-raid- 
ing, or even why he should refuse to take part in its profits. 

We must have faith in time. The Mussulman who finds 
the leading articles of his faith in the first two command- 
ments of the Decalogue is bitterly opposed to what he 
conceives to be the Christian belief, as represented by 
Roman Catholic "image-worship" and Mariolatry. He 
is a strict monotheist. He clings to the teaching com- 
prised in one short chapter of the Koran, which Moham- 
medans are said to look upon as equal in value to one-third 
of the whole. 

" Say, There is One God alone ; 
God the Eternal. 

He begetteth not, and He is not begotten ; 
And there is none like Him." 

Meantime, it is the dream of Cardinal Lavigerie's life, 
as Archbishop of Algeria, to bring back the old Roman 
North African provinces to the fold of Christendom. One 
great desire of his heart has been to erect a metropolitan 
cathedral once again in Carthage, and the building of that 
cathedral is now well on its way. But his aggressive move- 
ment against Islamism is far less successful. His White 
Fathers penetrate to every part of Africa; they wear the 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. 42 1 

Arab burnous, speak the Arabic tongue, and adopt native 
customs. Their zeal and self-devotion are worthy of all 
honor. " But thus far they have only scratched the top soil 
of Mohammedan Africa." 

A few words must suffice for the recent French war in 
Dahomey, for the German settlements on the west coast, 
and for the Royal Niger Company. 

In 1890 Behanzin, king of Dahomey, signed a treaty 
with the French, and in 1893 he broke it. He attacked 
the French protectorate of Porto Novo. Dahomey is a 
kingdom known to us as the highest example of savagery, 
with its "Grand Custom," i.e. its yearly offering of a crowd 
of slaves in sacrifice to its last sovereign's memory, its army 
of Amazons, and the uncurbed despotism of its kings. 
General Dodds (said to be, like General Dumas, another 
very illustrious French general, a man of color) was sent 
against Behanzin, who had received some education in 
France. General Dodds was not at first successful. He 
was recalled to France, but sent back with reinforcements. 
Behanzin was driven into the jungle, and Aboumey, his 
capital, was destroyed. War, however, has not yet ceased. 
Dahomey is not completely subdued. It is said that the 
French are importing Arab mercenaries from Arabia to 
complete the subjugation of the country, and to open trade 
routes into the interior. 

German rule in Africa dates only from 1884, when the 
German flag was hoisted at various places on the west 
coast. Germany, besides large possessions in East Africa, 
has now settlements on the Atlantic; Togoland, a small 
district on the Gulf of Guinea, and the Cameroons, a large 
territory lying between the possessions of the Niger Com- 
pany and French Congo, and extending northward to Lake 
Chad. Lately a governor of this province was recalled to 
Germany, and there tried and punished for harsh treatment 
of the natives. There is also a large " sphere of German 
influence " south of Portuguese Angola. This has been in 
German possession since 1884, and, apparently, has not 



422 EC ROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

proved profitable, since its development has been recently 
leased to an English company. It contains two restless 
Kafir tribes, the Namas and Damaras, and has a good 
harbor on Walfisch Bay which belongs by treaty to Cape 
Colony, and which that colony seems determined to 
retain. 

The Royal Niger Company had its origin in another 
African company, which, in 1884 and 1885, bought out 
some French companies trading on the Niger, and shortly 
afterwards assumed the administration of the country, which 
was declared a British protectorate. The company has now 
thirty steamers on the Niger and its tributaries. Its recog- 
nized limits reach to Lake Chad, as do those of the German 
Cameroons and the French Soudan. Near the boundary 
between French territory and itself, about six hundred 
miles distant from the mouth of the Niger, lies a country 
called Borgu, inhabited by a tribe of probably outcast Ber- 
bers, and a land hitherto little known to Europeans. The 
exceeding activity of the French in Western Africa has now 
aroused Englishmen to the importance of asserting Eng- 
land's influence and protection over the hinterlands of her 
coast colonies. That of Lagos, formerly one of the centres 
of the slave-trade, but occupied by the British since 1861, 
is peopled by a very superior negro tribe, called the Yorubas, 
engaged in the cultivation of the oil-palm. But the Yorubas 
have from time immemorial been invaded by warlike bands 
from the country of Borgu, brigands who have mercilessly 
intercepted small parties of traders, and so harassed the 
villages that the greater part of Northern Yoruba has now 
become a wilderness in spite of every precaution known 
to primitive man to fortify its villages. Besides their 
prowess as warriors, the people of Borgu are supposed to 
possess especial magical arts which give them immense 
superiority when they encounter their enemies. 

A treaty was made between Great Britain and France in 
1890, recognizing England's "influence" over the lands 
under the authority of the king of Borgu, in consequence 



THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. 423 

of which the Royal Niger Company made a treaty with 
that potentate at Boussa on the Niger, his capital. 

The men of Borgu are a remarkable race, being profes- 
sionally divided into banditti and agriculturists. They 
are the only pagan tribe who have successfully resisted the 
invasion of the Mohammedans, and they attribute this 
"not so much to their fighting powers as to their religion, 
which they affirm is that of "Kisra, a Jew" (can it be 
Christ?), who gave his life for the sins of mankind. They 
say that their forefathers were originally settled in the 
north of Africa, and were driven thence about the eighth 
or ninth century by Mohammedan conquerors." The 
native name for Borgu is Bariba, and for their neighbors 
in Bornu it is Berebere, seeming to denote their old con- 
nection with the Barbary states.^ "But with all their good 
points, the Borgu are cut-throats and robbers at heart, and 
travelling in their country is attended with much danger." 

Although England had treaty right of "influence" in 
Borgu, the French have asserted a right to the country on 
the ground that the king living at Boussa was not king of 
the whole land but a vassal of the king who lived at Nikki. 
It became important, therefore, to supplement the treaty 
with the king at Boussa by one with the king at Nikki. 
Then began what has been called "the race for Borgu." 
The French sent out an expedition, commanded by Captain 
Decoeur, in September, 1894, to secure a treaty before the 
English could reach the monarch's capital. A large 
force w^as sent because it was thought that the king of 
Nikki would sign any paper backed by many guns. 

The Royal Niger Company confided its interests to Cap- 
tain Lugard, who, although the rainy season had set in, and 
travelling was very difficult, started with thirty followers 
on the race, and won. He reached Nikki and obtained 
his treaty, which was signed November 10. Five days after 
he and his party left Nikki Captain Decceur arrived, and 

1 " In an old English Atlas (1825) I find a country marked Barbera, 
corresponding to the situation of Borgu and Bornu." — E. W. L. 



424 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

is claimed by the French to have induced the king to sign 
a treaty with France on November 25. 

Captain Lugard, on his return journey, signed treaties 
with the feudal chiefs of northern Yorubaland." The 
French were extremely disappointed at their checkmate, 
and are still very sore over the affair. 

Captain Lugard thinks that the motive of France in her 
Central African policy is threefold, viz. : — 

" (i) Access to the navigable waterway of the Nile as an 
outlet for the trade of her Central African possessions, a claim 
she would be certain to advance if she had a station on any 
navigable tributary to the Nile. 

" (2) Extension of her African Empire from the Atlantic to 
the Red Sea, an extension for which she has long been energeti- 
cally preparing from her base at Obok and Tanjurrah opposite 
Aden, and by agents in Abyssinia. 

" (3) The embarrassment of England in Egypt by the acqui- 
sition of the Upper Nile, and the control of the waters of the 
river." 

Captain Lugard's expedition was several times attacked 
on its return journey by Borgu banditti, who fight with 
arrows tipped with deadly poison. One porter in the 
caravan was struck in the shoulder by one of these arrows, 
and, in spite of care, charms, and antidotes, was never fit 
for anything again. The only fighting man wounded was 
the captain himself, "an arrow," he says, "having pene- 
trated deep into my skull I ate indiscriminately all kinds 
of native concoctions said to be antidotes to the poison, 
administered on the principle that if one did not cure 
another might. The result proved satisfactory, though the 
process of ' waiting to see what would happen ^ is by no 
means an agreeable one under such circumstances." 



CHAPTER XVI 

MADAGASCAR. 

ALL honor to a people who can accept defeat; can 
rise superior to adverse circumstances, can think 
and speak justly of those from whom their cause received 
its check, can take the fortunes of war after doing their 
best, from the hand of God Himself, and, accepting His 
decision, set themselves loyally to make things "work for 
good "; putting their faith in time, 

" And that which shapes it to some perfect end." 

Such is not the case with the French nation. Instead 
of rising superior to defeat. Frenchmen lose no opportunity 
of proclaiming themselves humihated. It is that sense of 
humihation which they feel (and which nobody else would 
perceive unless they persisted in drawing attention to it) 
that hurried them into profitless schemes of aggressive 
colonization, and weighs down with taxes their rural popu- 
lation and their bourgeoisie. It hampers also the policy of 
statesmen, and makes France an obstacle and an annoy- 
ance to other powers, with whom, as part of the Police 
Com.mittee that regulates the affairs of the Eastern Hemi- 
sphere, she is associated. 

Far better for these powers it would now seem had they 
intervened to prevent the separation of Alsace and Lorraine 
(Lorraine at least) from France. They pay the penalty 
of their mistake in the ruinous cost of their enormous 
armies, and perpetual checks and diplomatic quarrels con- 
cerning their colonial affairs. We know in daily life how 

425 



426 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

the pleasure of social intercourse is destroyed by a perpet- 
ual consciousness that we may hurt the feelings of some 
hyper-sensitive person who wants "a higher room" than it 
is convenient to assign him, whereas if he accepted his posi- 
tion with dignity and self-respect his claims to his " proper 
place" would be recognized more readily. What in Eng- 
land was called Jingoism is now rampant in France. The 
French, once honored and sympathized with by all the 
world in the days of their misfortune, are doing themselves 
small credit by their present attitude. Had France in 
silence built up her prosperity, instead of wearying all 
the world by the clamor of chauvinists, ex-communists, and 
Boulangists, she would stand higher at this moment in the 
eyes of those who love her not, and lie deeper in the hearts 
of those who love her. 

It is this that impels France into schemes of territorial 
aggression, not that she means to colonize the vast area of 
the earth's surface to which in " the scramble for Africa " 
she lays claim. She does not, like England, send a super- 
fluous population to colonize and develop her acquisitions ; 
Frenchmen are few and far between in savage countries. 
France marches armies at vast expense through desert 
lands, involves herself in diplomatic difficulties, establishes 
bureaucracy, and, to do her justice, builds railroads and 
sets up telegraph poles at her taxpayers' expense. And 
that is all. Her colonies seem of no manner of use to their 
mother-land. They are an expense grievous to be borne. 
And yet, not satisfied with having acquired twenty-six per 
cent of the whole African continent, in the greater part of 
which there is not one Frenchman (if we except explorers 
and Cardinal Lavigerie's White Fathers), she is now straining 
her resources beyond her strength to effect the destruction 
of a nation which has shown an aptitude for civilization 
hardly inferior to that of Japan. In 1890 England and 
Germany, out of consideration for French feelings, and to 
prevent France from interfering by reprisal in the African 
countries under their own control, united to give her a free 



MADAGASCAR. 427 

hand in Madagascar ; and one sympathizes with the Hovas 
who, a few weeks ago, refused to have anything to do with 
Englishmen, repulsing them as "sham friends." 

Well might the Scotch theologian. Dr. Guthrie, compare 
the effect of the white man's appearance in the lands of 
savage tribes as being as fatal to them as the arrival of the 
Hebrews to the Canaanites ; and Sir Fowell Buxton, speak- 
ing of the slave-raids, the liquor trade, the diseases incident 
to civilization, and the sale of firearms, said : " The darkest 
day for many a heathen tribe has been that which saw a 
white man first set foot upon its shore." 

Not many of my readers are probably aware that three 
centuries ago Madagascar was known to Englishmen as the 
Island of St. Lawrence, and that the English no less than 
the French in our own day had once a craze for the 
possession of it. 

A scheme was set on foot and advocated in print by one 
Richard Boothby, who professed himself " sure that any 
Prince once settled there with the riches of the island at his 
back, might, if he had the mind, become Emperor of the 
East Indies." ^^ 

Lord Arundel, father of the lady who has given her name 
Anne Arundel to one of the counties of Maryland, delighted 
in adventures. He was Earl Marshal of England, and en- 
tered heartily into the realization of the scheme. Charles I. 
was persuaded not only to favor it, and to promise both a 
fleet and funds, but to deem that the part of emperor of 
the East might be a fitting one to offer to his young nephew 
Prince Rupert, who was at that time hanging about his 
court " out of employ." Poets lauded the prospects of the 
young prince in verse, and Rupert was eager to put the plan 
in execution. But his mother, Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia, 
gave it her decided disapproval. 

" As for Rupert's romance about Madagascar," she wrote 
to a friend, " it sounds like one of Don Quixote's conquests 
when he promised his trusty squire to make him king of an 
island." 



428 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

The project came to an untimely end. The cause of its 
failure is not clearly known; probably its prospects were 
ruined by the distracted condition of affairs in England. 
There exists a picture by Vandyke of the Earl of Arundel 
and his lady sitting beside a terrestrial globe, the Earl 
pointing with his marshal's staff to Madagascar. 

The English project was taken up in 1642 by the French. 
Richelieu sent out an expedition to annex the island to the 
crown of France, but nothing came of it. 

Madagascar, whose native name means the Island of 
Wild Boars, has been coveted by the French for more than 
two centuries, but they never succeeded till 1887 in gaining 
any permanent foothold on its shores. They gave it indeed 
in Louis XIV. 's day the high-sounding title of La France 
Orientale, " and, on the most shadowy pretensions of pos- 
session, have ever since hankered after the conquest of the 
great African island." All their expeditions have, however, 
hitherto been attended with disaster. 

The island is peopled by various tribes who, although they 
speak a common language, are not a homogeneous people. 
Malagasy^ is their collective name. They have all, more or 
less, the characteristics of the Malay, or light Polynesian 
race. In some tribes this Oriental blood has been much 
mixed with that of negroes brought over from the coast of 
Mozambique, which is only two hundred and fifty miles 
distant. 

As far back as we know anything of the history of Mada- 
gascar its people were cattle-breeders, cattle-stealers, and 
perpetually at war with each other. Each tribe, however, 
seems to have paid tribute, and owed some kind of feudal 
allegiance, to a superior king, whose power, except as a 
military chief, seems to have been limited. A very curious 
narrative has been of late years reprinted, and may be 

^ A year or two since a friend from Southern Virginia, when talking 
about negro dialect, asked me if I could account for a term of reproach 
or contempt she had heard frequently used in the " Quarter," — " You ! 
— you Malagasy nigger you ! " 



MADAGASCAR. 429 

found in public libraries, containing the experiences of 
Robert Drury, a sailor-boy who, at the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, was for fifteen years a slave in Mada- 
gascar. He found the people generous and kindly, fierce 
in war, affectionate in their families, and with some ideas 
of religion, apparently derived from a Semitic source, but 
mixed up with the usual negro superstitions. 

Madagascar is nearly one thousand miles in length, and 
measures three hundred and fifty at its broadest part. Its 
centre is for the most part a plateau, about three thousand 
feet above sea-level. On the coast are dense forests and 
wide malarious plains. The southern part of the island is 
very little known. The east coast has one magnificent 
harbor towards the north, but with that exception it is en- 
tirely without inlets or bays. Tamatave, its chief port, has 
only an open roadstead. To north and west the coast line 
is better provided. 

One of the largest of the Malagasy tribes is the Sakalava, 
which is divided into several clans, each under the local 
government of its own chief. It inhabits the low lands on 
the eastern coast. The Sakalava are a restless, plundering, 
nomadic race, and number, it is thought, nearly one million 
three hundred thousand. The whole native population of 
the island, according to the latest ofiicial estimate in 1894, 
is between four and five milHon, of which about one miUion 
are Hovas. 

For centuries the Hovas were but a small tribe confined 
to the plateau province of Imerina in the centre of the 
island. " Their complexion is light olive, frequently fairer 
than that found in Spaniards, ItaUans, or Turks. They have 
soft, straight or curling hair, dark hazel eyes, a well-propor- 
tioned and erect carriage, and are distinguished by great 
activity and courage." 

King Radama I., a Hova chief (18 10-1828), was the 
first to exercise any centrahzed authority. He founded the 
first dynasty, and in 1824, as soon as he felt his power estab- 
lished, he commenced reforms and improvements in his 



430 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

country. For a knowledge of civilization he was greatly- 
indebted to the friendship of Mr. Hastie, a British agent long 
resident among his people. In 1820 a Protestant mission 
was established at the capital city Antananarivo with the 
approval of the king, who, though himself a heathen, is rep- 
resented as having been a kind of Malagasy Peter the Great. 
He sent some of his young men to Mauritius, and even to 
England, to acquire knowledge, especially a knowledge of 
ship-building, and ardently desired that his people should 
be enhghtened. 

" A small body of earnest men," says Mr. James Sibree, Jr., 
the best authority on the history and affairs of Madagascar, 
" who were sent out by the London Missionary Society, did 
a great work during the fifteen years they were allowed to 
labor in the central provinces." The Malagasy language 
had never been reduced to writing, though orally it was 
rich in folk-lore, and also had several poems. " The mis- 
sionaries reduced it to a written form, gave the people 
the beginnings of a native literature and a complete ver- 
sion of the Holy Scriptures, and founded several Christian 
churches. To all appearance Christianity and civilization 
seemed Hkely soon to prevail throughout the country." 
But King Radama died in 1828, at the early age of thirty- 
six, and was succeeded by Queen Ranavalona L, who soon 
broke up all these bright hopes and anticipations. In 1835 
she commenced a cruel persecution of the Christians, 
" which, however, utterly failed to prevent the progress of 
Christianity, and only served to show in a remarkable man- 
ner the faith and courage of the native Christians, of whom 
at least two hundred were put to death, whilst others were 
enslaved or tortured. The political state of the country 
was also deplorable under Queen Ranavalona's reign ; the 
missionaries were forced to leave the island, almost all for- 
eigners were excluded, and for some years even foreign 
commerce was forbidden." 

In 186 1 the queen died, and was succeeded by her son 
Radama II., a young man steeped in insane follies and vices, 



MADAGASCAR. 43 1 

in which he was encouraged by worthless foreigners and 
native favorites. Commerce, however, was reopened, and 
the missionaries resumed their work. But the brief reign of 
Radama II » laid a foundation for the great woes that at 
present threaten Madagascar. " Soon after he came to the 
throne a French planter named Lambert, from the island of 
Reunion, managed to obtain his consent as King of Mad- 
agascar to a charter conceding to a company, to be formed 
by Lambert, very extensive rights over the whole of Mada- 
gascar. The king's signature was obtained while he was in 
a state of intoxication at a banquet given at the house of the 
French consul, and against the remonstrances of all the 
leading people of the kingdom. This concession was one 
of the principal causes of the revolution in which the king 
lost both his crown and his life. He was succeeded by one 
of his wives, Ranavalona II. (or, as she is called by some 
writers, Rasoherina). She and her ministers promptly re- 
pudiated the concession to Lambert, as a virtual abandon- 
ment of their country to France. Threats of bombardment, 
etc., were freely used, but at length it was arranged that on 
the payment of an indemnity of a million francs by the native 
government to the company, its rights should be abandoned. 
It is said that this pacific result was largely due to the good 
sense and kindly feeling of the Emperor Napoleon HI., who, 
on being informed of the progress in Christianity and civi- 
lization made by the Malagasy, refused to allow this to be 
imperilled by an aggressive war." 

The French Republic of the present day not only bases 
rights to the country on the treaty of 1862, but asserts that 
it has never acknowledged any native sovereign to be king or 
queen of Madagascar. But M. Galos, a writer in the "Revue 
des Deux Mondes," in an article in the number for Octo- 
ber, 1863, says, commenting upon the treaty : — 

" In it Radama II. appears as king of Madagascar. We 
have recognized without restriction his sovereignty over 
the whole island. As such, two consuls have been accredited 
to him, one at Tamatave, the other at his capital." And in 



432 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

a subsequent treaty with Queen Ranavalona II. in 1868, 
she is styled by the French government, Queen of Mada- 
gascar. 

Queen Ranavalona II., the immediate predecessor of the 
present Queen Ranavalona III., had been a Christian in 
secret before her elevation to the throne. She at once is- 
sued orders for the pubUc burning of her " ancestral idols." 
The better educated classes, long disgusted with the rapacity 
and imposture of the idol-keepers, who had spread deso- 
lation over Madagascar in previous reigns, were quick to 
follow the queen's example. " Christianity thus inaugu- 
rated under royal auspices, bore immediate and wonderful 
fruits. The schools and the churches, which, at the com- 
mencement of her reign, numbered respectively twenty- 
five and one hundred and twenty, exceeded when she 
died, in 1883, eleven hundred churches and twelve hundred 
schools." 

The work of governing the country was divided among 
eight ministers. The army was reorganized and a rural 
police established; slaves brought from Africa were liber- 
ated ; a code of laws was promulgated, and great reforms 
in the administration of justice were made. 

Ranavalona II. died in 1883, after a reign of twenty 
years, and was succeeded by her niece, Ranavalona III., 
who still reigns over her people. She was educated in 
the girls' school of the London Missionary Society; and 
she is thus described by an EngHshman, Digby Willoughby, 
who, in 1887, was the general officer commanding the Mala- 
gasy forces, and conducted negotiations on the queen's be- 
half with the French invaders of her country : — 

" Her Hfe is full of business and responsibility, for every- 
thing regarding the government of her country and the 
welfare of her people is referred to her. To gentleness of 
manner she adds firmness of character. She is a fair rider 
and a wonderful shot ; she is a good musician, and plays 
the organ with skill and feeling. Her skill in lace-work is 
remarkable. When she appears in pubHc, which is not 




,v 





QUEEN RANAVALONA III. 



MADAGASCAR. 433 

often/ it is in European costume. The queen seldom, if ever, 
acts in matters of national importance without first ascer- 
taining the national will ; this is done by publishing a royal 
edict for a great Kabary, which is always held on the great 
Mahmasina, or Champ de Mars, a magnificent plain at the 
foot of the mountain on which the capital is built. ... It is 
the law of the land that the queen should marry the prime 
minister. Ranavalona III. complied with this law by mar- 
rying, on her accession, the experienced minister who had 
conducted reforms under her predecessor. His name is Raini- 
laiarivony. But to the foreign residents, who despair of 
being able to pronounce such a worse-than-Russian word, 
he is commonly known as ' Deal Fair.' From the day 
of his entrance into the palace as secretary in 1842 to the 
present time, his life and the political history of Madagascar 
have been identical. His hair is now gray, but the fire in 
his eyes, and their depths of intelligence, are not dimmed 
by age. He has achieved a great position and has won his 
laurels step by step, by merit, not by favor." ^ 

And now has come a time in which French policy is to 
disintegrate the newly consolidated empire, to stir up out- 
lying tribes, in which the central authority is weak, to dis- 



1 Since the invasion of her country by the French during the present 
year (1895) she has made a point of daily appearing among her sub- 
jects, exhorting them to make a brave resistance to the invaders. 

2 A book very recently published in England by Captain Maude, 
V.C., gives a less favorable view of Rainilaiarivony than is taken by 
other writers. He depicts him as being cruel and despotic, but speaks 
highly of his talents for statesmanship and diplomacy. The cruelties 
charged against him are probably less due to any innate ferocity on the 
part of Rainilaiarivony than to what might be called the African system 
of exacting forced labor from agriculturists in lieu of taxes. Captain 
Maude speaks of the immense wealth of the island, undeveloped as yet 
by mining enterprise or systematic cultivation. He also shows, by his 
description of the great difficulties of transportation over roadless 
mountains from the seacoast to Antananarivo, what obstacles await 
the French on their advance to that capital, if increased a thousand- 
fold by the determined resistance of a brave race, well armed and 
familiar with the passes and goat paths in their own mountains. 

2m 



434 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

content and rebellion. " Truly," adds Mr. Sibree, "a noble 
mission for a great and enlightened European nation 1 " 

It is difficult to imagine what motives except Chauvin- 
Jingoism induced the French Republic in 1885 ^^ revive 
what it called its " historic rights " in Madagascar. The 
history of these " historic rights " may be best collected 
from an article written by General Digby Willoughby in the 
"Fortnightly Review" in 1887 at the conclusion of the war. 

One subject in dispute was that the Malagasy government 
refused to foreigners the right to purchase land. It was 
willing to grant leases for thirty-five years, but not for 
ninety-nine, or in perpetuity. 

The earliest historic right claimed by France was the 
treaty made with the Sakalavas, when that tribe was in re- 
bellion against Ranavalona I. in 1842. The Sakalavas were 
defeated by the queen, and their country reduced to obedi- 
ence. France had attempted no settlement whatever on 
the mainland ; but she had taken possession of two islands, 
Ste. Marie, off the eastern coast, and Nosi-be, a volcanic 
island to the northwestward. Subsequently the country 
over which in 1842 the Sakalavas had offered to acknowl- 
edge a French protectorate was acknowledged by France 
to belong to the sovereign of Madagascar, when, in 1862 
and 1868, it was desirable to negotiate a charter which 
would give a French company rights in that very country 
now claimed as having been since 1842 a French pro- 
tectorate. 

In May, 1883, these pretensions of the French not having 
been admitted by the Malagasy government, Mojanga, a 
port on the west coast, and Tamatave on the east were 
bombarded ; after which Mojanga was occupied by French 
troops, the garrison having retired to the interior. It is 
probable the French expected that the war would end with 
this bombardment, and that the Malagasy would accept 
their ultimatum. This was (I.) that the French were to 
have guaranteed to them all the island north of the sixteenth 
parallel. (II.) An indemnity of two hundred thousand 



MADAGASCAR. 435 

dollars for the claims of French citizens. (III.) A voice in 
matters affecting the policy of the PI ova government. 

The queen promptly refused to negotiate unless she were 
recognized as sovereign of Madagascar. 

A few days later Admiral Pierre opened fire from his six 
vessels on Tamatave. The garrison retired, when the bom- 
bardment commenced, to an entrenched camp in a lofty 
and secure position. The Hovas had ineffectually attempted 
to set fire to their town before evacuating it, and it was taken 
possession of by the French. Nearly two years passed with- 
out any change in the situation. Admiral Pierre had gone 
home invahded, and was succeeded by another admiral 
who recommenced operations in October, 1885, by utterly de- 
stroying another sea-port town. The Malagasy government 
now proposed to make some concessions. It emphatically 
declared with regard to "the sovereignty or protectorate 
claimed by France over certain territories, that no protec- 
torate was recognized, and that Madagascar would never 
yield her independence." She offered, however, to pay the 
proposed indemnity for the French claims during twenty 
years, and to make some concessions regarding the renting 
of land. The French admiral refused these terms, and at 
once the war opened more actively. General Willoughby was 
now in command of the queen's forces. The French at- 
tacked the Malagasy camp. A battle took place, and al- 
though the French were supported by the effective fire of 
eleven or twelve warships, they were repulsed with a loss of 
sixty killed and wounded. Admiral Miot led the French 
column in person with conspicuous coolness and gallantry. 

Two other battles, in which the French were assisted by 
their allies the Sakalavas, were equally disastrous to the 
French, so that after this trial at arms negotiations recom- 
menced. 

M. de Freycinet, then French Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
drew up a scheme on what appeared a somewhat liberal 
basis, and entrusted a M. Patrimonio with a mission of peace. 
This gentleman informed his government that Admiral Miot 



436 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

was convinced " that the Malagasy government would never 
accept, of its free will, the protectorate of France, even lim- 
ited to the external relations of Madagascar." Unhappily for 
Madagascar, her plenipotentiary saw no great harm in en- 
trusting to France the foreign relations of a country that 
had not, and did not appear likely to have, any foreign rela- 
tions. 

So a treaty of peace was concluded on what seemed a 
satisfactory basis and was signed December 17, 1885. 

No protectorate was acknowledged, but the government 
of the Republic was to " represent Madagascar in all its 
foreign relations," as had been a stipulation made previously 
between Great Britain and the Transvaal. The queen of 
Madagascar undertook to pay ten million francs to the 
French government, out of which were to be settled the 
claims made by foreigners for damages caused by the war, 
and this sum being paid, the French troops were to evacuate 
Tamatave. 

The word "protectorate " was nowhere in the treaty, and 
a Malagasy embassy sent to the President of the French Re- 
public was received by President Gr^vy at the Elys^e with 
no mention of a protectorate. Throughout, the Malagasy 
government treated with the French on equal terms. 

Out of the first article in the treaty of 1885, which said 
*^ Malagasy abroad will be placed under the protection of 
France, and France will represent Madagascar in all her 
foreign relations," comes the pretext now put forward for 
the present war. The second article ran thus : " A resident 
representing the government of the RepubHc will preside 
over the foreign residents of Madagascar without interfering 
in the internal administration of her Majesty the Queen." 

In answer to an official inquiry made before the sign- 
ing of this treaty as to the exact meaning of these clauses. 
Admiral Miot repUed : " This means that the resident will 
have the right to interfere in matters having the character 
of foreign politics ; that he will have the right, for instance, 
to oppose any cession of territory to any foreign nation 




CHARLES DE ERE Y CI NET. 



MADAGASCAR. 437 

whatever, any military or naval establishments, or the grant- 
ing of any assistance by men or vessels by the queen of 
Madagascar to any foreign nation without the consent of 
the French government ; without whose approval no treaty 
agreement, or convention can be made. ... In answer to 
the question whether the queen's government may as hereto- 
fore continue to negotiate commercial treaties with foreign 
powers ? — the answer is : Undoubtedly ; as far as such 
commercial treaties are not contrary to the stipulations of 
the treaty of December 17, 1885." 

In a treaty made by France, England, and Germany 
August 5, 1890, regarding the partition of Africa, the claim of 
the French to consider Madagascar a French protectorate 
unhappily was recognized. It seems hard to imagine on 
what just ground this cession of a right which Madagascar 
had always denied was made to France by foreign powers, 
unless we consider Madagascar as thrown in as a sort of 
make-weight to pacify France, whose claims in Central and 
Eastern Africa threatened to conflict with those of Germany, 
and whose jealousy of the occupation of Egypt by Great 
Britain is always on the alert. 

" By this agreement the Madagascar question was taken 
out of the circle of international questions, and became a 
question of how much money the French Assembly was 
willing to spend in another attempt to extend French au- 
thority on the island." Under the shelter of this joint 
convention with Great Britain and Germany, the French 
Repubhc sent in to Queen Ranavalona, at the close of 1894, 
an ultimatum so framed as to justify the French in doing 
anything they chose thereafter. Should the Malagasy gov- 
ernment refuse to accept these terms of the French ulti- 
matum war was to be declared. 

The government of Queen Ranavalona replied, acknowl- 
edging the position of the French Resident, M. Bompard, 
as intermediary between Madagascar and foreign powers ; 
and agreeing that France, to whom had been ceded the fine 
port of Diego Suarez, should create such public works on the 



438 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

island as the authorities might deem necessary ; also propos- 
ing that disputes between the two countries should be settled 
by a mixed court, the Malagasy government retaining the 
right to import arms and munitions of war. 

Meantime the French Ministry obtained from the Cham- 
bers a credit of sixty-five million francs to prosecute the 
war ; and General Duchesne with fifteen thousand men is at 
present engaged in the work of reducing the kingdom of 
Madagascar, stable and largely civiHzed for fifty years, prac- 
tically to a French colony. 

The French army landed in Tamatave in April of this 
year, 1895. Its objective point is the capital Tananarive, 
(or Antananarivo). This is in the province of Imerina, in 
quiet times seven days' journey by palanquin from Tama- 
tave. The central mountain plateau, on which Tananarive 
is situated, is divided from the coast by a belt of forest- 
land, forty miles wide, which is extremely unhealthy. 
The advance of the French to Antananarivo will be much 
like that of Sir Robert Napier to Magdala, with two excep- 
tions. Sir Robert's way lay through a country hostile to 
King Theodore, and no attempt was made to stop the Eng- 
lish army in the mountain passes. Secondly, the climate 
of Abyssinia was salubrious, that on the coast line of Mada- 
gascar is so unhealthy that it has already twice stopped the 
advance of French forces to the interior. 

Antananarivo has a population of one hundred thousand. 
It is built on the sides and summit of a granite mountain. 
As approached from the seacoast, it is said to present an 
appearance both grand and singular. 

A gray-colored palace seems to dominate the city. Little 
by little the other buildings upon the summit and the spires 
of Protestant churches come into view, and later the clay 
huts, roofed with straw, which cover the sides of the moun- 
tain. The dwellings of the ministers and commandants are, 
however, more imposing. And on the plain, surround- 
ing the Mahmasina — the Champ de Mars — are erected 
pretty cottages, a little summer palace, and several churches. 



MADAGASCAR. 439 

The London Missionary Society, established since 1820, 
had taken the lead in converting Madagascar into a Chris- 
tian island. It has now twenty-nine European missionaries, 
eight hundred and eighty-five native pastors, and forty-two 
hundred and ninety-eight evangelists. It has eight hundred 
and ninety- three schools, and sixty-six thousand childien 
under its instruction. 

The Quakers of England have also one hundred and 
thirty-nine churches, a large hospital, and a school for 
medical students and nurses. 

The Norwegians have a mission among the Sakalavas, 
and claim to have sixty thousand adherents. 

In 1861 the Jesuits founded a mission with a bishop and 
a large staff of priests, friars, and sisters. The Catholics 
number one hundred and thirty thousand, and a consider- 
able party of Cardinal Lavigerie's White Fathers have 
accompanied the French expedition. 

The primary pretext for the quarrel which it may be 
feared will result in the extinction of the native govern- 
ment, was the refusal of the queen and her ministers to 
acknowledge the justice of the English, French, and German 
convention in 1890, by recognizing the French right to 
grant papers to newly appointed foreign consuls. Exequa- 
turs were granted to consuls, both of Germany and the 
United States in 189 1, by the Malagasy Minister for Foreign 
Affairs without any reference to the French representative. ^ 

1 This United States consul was Mr. Waller, of whom the Outlook 
(Sept. 21, 1895) says : — 

" The Waller case has now advanced to such a stage that a recapitu- 
lation of it may be timely. In 1891 the Hova government in Mada- 
gascar granted an exequatur to Mr. John L. Waller, who had previously 
been our Consul at Tamatave, the port of the capital of Madagascar, 
Antananarivo. As the protectorate of France over Madagascar set up 
in 1890 had been acknowledged by Great Britain, but not by the 
United States, the French Resident-General was angered, as he had 
directed Mr. Waller to apply only to him, and thus to accord a half- 
recognition of the French protectorate. Mr. Waller refused, however, 
and "remained as Consul under the Hova government until January, 
1894, when he was superseded. Mr. Waller then applied to the Mala- 



440 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

The Malagasy government had previously taken this stand 
in 1885, when the prime minister and M. le Myre de Vilers, 
the French Resident, had a quarrel on the subject of grant- 
ing an exequatur to the first British consul appointed at 
Antananarivo. This gentleman was Mr. Haggard, brother 
of the novelist. The point was then waved, after a display 
of temper by M. de Vilers, and the granting of exequaturs 
to foreign governments had remained in the hands of the 
Malagasy ministers, till it was convenient to revive it a 
few months since. The same M. de Vilers was then sent to 
Madagascar to extract certain concessions from the queen's 
government, i.e. the right of Frenchmen absolutely to pur- 
chase land on the island, the right of the French Resi- 
dent to interfere in the administration of Malagasy internal 
affairs, and the recognition of an effectual French protect©- 

gasy government for a lease of certain public lands. In spite of the 
protest of the French Resident-General, this lease was granted in 
March, 1894. The concession covered nearly one hundred and fifty 
thousand acres, and the land was not only fertile for agriculture, but 
was especially valuable by reason of its splendid forests yielding ma- 
hogany, ebony, rosewood, and especially a wealth of rubber-trees. 
The French authorities, whose claim was of course still disputed by the 
Hovas (who had never given them authority other than that of a super- 
vision of the island's foreign affairs), attempted to get the lease from 
Mr. Waller by offering to approve a concession for about one-tenth the 
number of acres, and to furnish the money with which to develop it. 
When Mr. Waller refused this offer, the French Resident-General de- 
clared his original lease null and void. This declaration violated the 
rights guaranteed to citizens of the United States by our treaty of 1883 
with Madagascar, France having since then announced that she would 
change nothing in the treaties between the Hova government and other 
nations. When Mr. Waller attempted to take possession of his con- 
cession, he was forcibly prevented by the French authorities. Later on 
the French claimed that Mr. Waller was acting as a revolutionary agent. 
He was, therefore, arrested and thrown into prison by the French, and 
was tried by military court martial and sentenced to imprisonment for 
twenty years on the charge that he was a Hova spy who had conspired 
against the French protectorate. It is interesting to note that some of 
the English papers have followed our own in warning the French gov- 
ernment that the action in regard to Mr, Waller has been precipitate, 
and that a court martial may not take the place of the civil law, especi' 
ally in adjudicating the offenses of foreigners." 



MADAGASCAR, 44 1 

rate. The final reply to these demands was made by Rai- 
nilaiarivony that Madagascar would submit to such condi- 
tions only by force. 

Meantime, the army of Queen Ranavalona is being 
drilled on the European plan; its general and his staff are 
fine, soldierly-looking men, dressed in European uniforms. 

When news of the declaration of war was received at 
Antananarivo, it was a touching sight in the royal chapel 
when, after public prayers to implore the God of armies to 
deliver Madagascar from its enemies, the queen stood up 
and, addressing her people, counselled them not to be 
afraid, for God always helped those who have right on 
their side, and that in Him she put her trust; for success 
in war was not in the multitude of an host, but in strength 
from Heaven. 

There is a fine harbor at the north of Madagascar which 
is almost landlocked. If the French government could 
annex the island, fortifications could be built there which 
would be almost impregnable, and in time of war the pos- 
session of this great harbor would give France such a sweep 
of the Indian Ocean as might seriously interfere with Eng- 
land's commerce, and threaten her possessions in Eastern 
and Southern Africa. 

The jealous rivalry between France and England regard- 
ing their colonial possessions, or more properly (in the 
case of France) uncolonized possessions in Africa, opens 
melancholy possibilities in the future. Each country, as it 
stretches out its limbs, is apt to touch the claims or the 
possessions of some other; and until surveys can be made, 
reliable maps drawn out, and boundaries established, cases 
requiring settlement cannot but arise. When this is the 
case with Germany, amicable arrangements are easily 
entered into. Germany respects boundaries, and deals 
with rival nations in a spirit of compromise. Not so 
France. It is the great misfortune of republics that their 
foreign policy is rarely left to the sole guidance of states- 
men's hands. 



442 EUROPE IN AFRICA IN THE XIXTH CENTURY. 

It is sad to close these chapters on " Europe in Africa 
in the Nineteenth Century " with a melancholy foreboding. 
But there are yet five years before the century will end; let 
us hope that, during that period, the prospects of Mada- 
gascar, its queen, and its prime minister may brighten. A 
Lost Cause is not always a cause lost in every sense of the 
word; sometimes a thunder-storm revives the earth. All 
the same, I trust my readers join me in the hope that the 
cause of the queen and of her Christianized people in Mada- 
gascar may be, in no sense, a Lost Cause. 



POSTSCRIPT. 

Events in Africa now move with such rapidity that even while 
these pages were being corrected in proof several things have 
taken place which can hardly be passed over without notice. 

King Khama (see p. 371) is now in England protesting 
against his kingdom's being absorbed into Cape Colony with 
the rest of Bechuanaland. 

Mr. Stokes, the trader (see pp. 207, 211), has been seized and 
summarily executed by a Belgian major in charge of an expedi- 
tionary force in Congo Free State. His offence was the old one 
of selling firearms to the natives. 

The present English ministry have announced their intention 
of completing the railway from Mombassa to the Victoria Nyanza 
in three years. The work will probably be done by Hindoo 
labor, and the Government will keep the enterprise in its own 
hands. 

The Hovas have apparently made less opposition to th^ 
advance of General Duchesne than was expected. 

443 



INDEX. 



A. 

Abbas Pasha, Viceroy of Egypt, 32- 

34. 
Abbas Pasha II. Khedive, 42, 43, 46, 

47, 49, 50, 51. 59-62. 
Abdel Kader, 394-404. 
Abdul Aziz, Sultan of Turkey, 39,40, 

43- 
Abdul Aziz, Sultan of Morocco. See 

Muley. 
Abdullah Ahmed. See Mahdi. 
Abdullah. See Khalifa Abdullah. 
Abdul Medjid, Sultan, 28. 
Abu Klea, 94. 
Abyssinia, 228, 229, 237-239, 249. 

English v/ar with, 237-245. 

Christianity in, 228, 245. 

makes war on Egypt, 246. 

Itahans in Abyssinia, 248, 249. 
Acre, 22, 23, 26, 28. 
Adams, C. C, quoted, 264, note. 
Adams, Colonel Goold, 371, 375, 
Aden, 257. 

Advance, steamer, 162, 168, 181. 
Africa, in 1822, 9 ; in 1895, 9? lo* 

early in the Christian era, 10-12. 

Central Africa, 389, 406, 411, 
412. 

Eastern, 260-262, 

Northern, 411, 417. 

Southei;n, 331, 346, 347. 

Western, 418, 421-424. 
African Lakes Company, 384, 385, 
Agulhas, Cape, 325. 
Albert Nyanza, 115, 136, 164, 168. 
Alexandria, 

bombarded, 28, 50-53, 55. 

massacre in, 47-50. 
Algeria, 280, 392-400, 405, 406, 
Algiers, 268, 273, 274, 279, 390, 391, 

392. 
Aliwal, 349, 350. 



Allen, Joseph Henry, quoted, 198, 

note. 
Antananarivo, 430, 438. ' 
Arabi Ahmed (Arabi Pasha), 42, 43, 
46, 47, 49-51, 59-63- 
his rebellion, 53-60. 
Arogeh, battle of, 238. 
Arthington, 317, 318. 
Aruwimi, river, 147, 150, 153, 158, 159. 
Arundel, Earl of, 427, 428. 
Ashantee war, 322-324. 
Ashmun, 295, 296. 
Aumale, Due d', 398, 399. 
Ayres, Dr. Eli, 298. 

B. 

Bacon, Lord, quoted, 303, 304. 

Bagamoyo, 185, 261. 

Bahr Gazal, 100, 155, 414. 

Baines, Thomas, 368. 

Baker, Sir Samuel, 69-71, 73, 115, 

116, 228. 
Baker, Valentine (Baker Pasha), 81, 

82. 
Baltimore in Ireland, 271, 272. 
Bainbridge, Commodore, 273-277. 
Banalya, 175, 177. 
Bangala, 176, 177. 
Barbary States, 266-284, 
Barbary Corsairs, 266-272. 
Barbarossa (Kheyr-ed-Din), 267- 

270. 
Barbarossa (Uraj), 267, 268. 
Barine Arv^de, quoted, 259, 260. 
Barrage, 20, 113, 114. 
Barttelot, Major, 156, 159-161, 170, 

Bechuana Border Police, 371, 375, 

379, 380. 
Bechuanaland, 346. See Postscript. 
Behanzin, King of Dahomey, 421. 
Beira, 360. 



445 



44^ 



INDEX. 



Berlin, Congress of, 124. 

Convention of 1885, 260, 261. 
Bent, Theodore, 366, quoted, 365-368, 

371. 382. 
Bet el 'Mtomi, 253, 254. 
Bet el Sahil, 254, 255. 
Bizerta, 404. 
Blanc, Dr., 235, 236. 
Blantyre, 383, 384. 
Bloemfontein, 348. 
Bodo, Fort, 165, 167-173, 182. 
Boers, 126, 327, 342-344, 356. 
Bonaparte, 12, 13, 23. 
Bonny, William, 156, 159, 175, 176. 
Bonomi, Father, 99, 102, 104, 105. 
Borgu, Race for, 422, 423, 424. 
Borrow, Captain, 372, 377. 
Boulanger, General, 280. 
Brand, President of Orange Free 

State, 344. 
British East African Company, 193, 

208-210, 216, 219, 263, 264, 

265. 
British Chartered South African 

Company, 346, 360, 362, 363, 

370, 382, 383- 
Buluwayo, 370, 373, 374, 379. 
Burgess, Mr., 292, 293. 
Burgess, President, South African 

Republic, 342. 
Burnaby, Captain, 94. 
Burnham, American scout, 373, 374, 

C. 

Cairo, 58, 59. 

Caillie, Rene, 407. 

Cameron, Captain, traveller, 141. 

in Abyssinia, 231-234, 242. 
Cameroons, 417, 422, 
Cape Colony, 326, 327, 345, 346. 
Carey, Lieutenant, 337, 338, 340. 
Carey, Lot, 295. 
Carnarvon, Lord, 331, 
Casati, 161, 168, 177, 178. 
Cavaignac, General, 397, 
Cetywayo (Cetshwayo), Zulu king, 

330, 332, 334-336, 340, 341- 
his sons, 342. 
Chad, Lake, 406. 
Chaka, Zulu chief, 328, 364. 
Chaillu, Paul de, 418, 419. 
Charles V., 269, 270. 



Chauvinism, 415, nofe. 
Chelmsford, Lord, 332, 335, 336. 
Christian captives in Algeria, 270- 
272. 

in Abyssinia, 233-236, 241, 243. 
Christian martyrs in Uganda, 197- 
203. 

in Madagascar, 430. 
Clay, Henry, 292. 
Cleveland, President, quoted, 318, 

319- 
Colley, Sir George, 343, 344. 
Colville, Colonel, 222. 
Congo Free State, 146-148, 413, 

414. 
Congo River, 135, 136, 142, 143, 146- 

148, 158, 159, 175. 
Conventions, 
in 1878, 124. 
in 1885, 261, 264. 
in 1890, 208, 422. 
in 1891, 210, 418. 
Cookson, consul at Alexandria, 48. 
Coomassie, 134, 324. 
Corduroy road, 147. 
Cortez, Herman, 270. 
Cromer, Lord (Sir Evelyn Baring), 

112. 
Cuffee, Captain Paul, 291, 293. 

D. 

Dafil^, 179, 180. 

Dahomey, 421. 

Damascus, 402, 403. 

Darfour, 70. 

Dark Forest, 161, 162. 

Daumas, General, 399, 400. 

Decatur, Commodore Stephen, 276, 

391. 
Dervishes, 79, 80, 180. 
Desmichels, General, 396, 397. 
Diamonds, 348, 349, 352. 

at Kimberley, 350-352. 

on the Vaal River, 354. 
Djehad (Holy War), 394. 
Dodds, General, 421. 
Doria, Admiral Andrea, 269, 270. 
Dragut, 270, 271. 
Drury, Robert, 429. 
Druses, 402. 

Duchesne, General, 438. 
Dufferin, Lord, 63, 112. 
Dutch in Africa, 323, 325, 326, 327. 



INDEX. 



447 



Egypt, 10-14, 20-23, 26-30, 37, 38, 

41-4S, 47, 63, 66-71, 109-119. 
army of, 41, 42, 
Egyptian refugees with Emin Pasha, 

182-184. 
with Selim Bey, 213-216. 
Eltz, Baron von, 385. 
Emboma (Boma), 143, 144, 146. 
Emeralds, 405. 
Emin Bey, Mameluke, 17. 
Emin Pasha, 136, 148-150, 153, 154, 

159, 168, 172, 177-182, 184-188, 

212-214, 225, 226. 
Emin Relief Expedition, 148-150, 

154-187. 
English in Egypt, 13, 14, 41, 43, 50- 

69. 
soldiers return from Egypt, 64, 

65- 
administration in Egypt, 63-65, 

109-120. 
French jealousy of, 67, 119, 211, 
414-416. 
Equatorial Provinces, 68-95, 213-215, 
413-416. 
abandoned in 1882, 109, 116, 117. 
Eritrea. See Itahan sphere of influ- 
ence. 
Ettigfe, wife of Emperor Theodore, 

244. 
Eugenie, ex-Empress of the French, 
36, 34°- 



Failherbe, General, 412. 
Ferida, 180, 184, 226. 
Flad, Rev. Mr., 240, 242. 
Flatters, Colonel, 405, 410. 
Forbes, Major P. W., 372-377. 
France supports Mehemet Ali, 27, 
abandons his interests, 29. 
joins England in administering 

Egyptian affairs, 41, 43, 44. 
withdraws 1882, 50. 
France and Liberia, 301, 318. 
France and Congo Free State, 412- 

414. 
Francis I., 270. 
Frederick II. of Germany, 198, 

note. 
French aggressiveness and jealousy 

accounted for, 425, 426. 



French so-called historic claims to 

Madagascar, 431-434. 
French make war on Madagascar, 

in 1883, 434-436. 

in 1894, 437-440. 
Frere, Sir Bartle, 258, 330, 331, 334, 

335- 
Froude, J. Anthony, quoted, 356, 

357. 

G. 

Galabat, 247, 248. 

German convention with England in 

1890, 261, 262. 
German administration in Africa, 

190, 260-262, 414, 421, 422. 
Gessi Pasha, 72, 96. 
Gladstone, Mr. W. E., 66, iii, 343. 
Gold in the Transvaal, 355-359. 

in Ashantee, 329. 

in Mashonaland, 369, 379. 
Gondokoro, 71, 136. 
Gondar, 229. 

Gordon, General, 71-95, 100, 362. 
Gordon, Rev. E. C, 205. 
Graham, Sir Gerald, 81, 82, 95. 
Griqualand, East, 347. 
Griqualand, West, 347, 349, 350. 
Gubat, 94. 

Gurley, Ralph Randolph, 295. 
Guthrie, Dr., quoted, 427. 

H. 
Haggard, Rider, quoted, 380-382; 

his brother, 440. 
Hall, Dr. James, 296-301, 306-312, 

315. 316. 
Hanlon, R. C. Bishop in Uganda, 

219. 
Hannington, Bishop, 199, 200. 
Hansal, Austrian Consul, 100. 
Hassall, Owen, 375. 
Hicks Pasha, 79, 99. 
Hirth, R. C. Vicar Apostolic of Ny- 

anza, 222. 
Hopkins, Dr. Samuel, 290, 291. 
Hovas, 429. 

I. 

Ibea, 190. See East Africa. 
Ibrahim Pasha, 23-28, 31. 
Ibwiri, 164. 
Inland Algerian Sea, 405, 406, 



448 



INDEX. 



Isandlwana, 333, 334. 

Ismail Pasha, Khedive, 38-41, 43-45, 

68, 74, 75, 122. 
Israel, Joseph, 277. 
Italians in Abyssinia, 190, 248, 249. 
in Somaliland, 190, 191. 
in Tunis, 281. 
Italian sphere of influence, 190, 191, 
248, 249. 

J- 
Jameson, James, 156, 161, 176, 177. 
Jameson, Dr, 370, 372, 376. 
Jephson, J. Mounteney, 156, 160, 177, 

179-181, 184, 186, 187, 226. 
Jeraud, Father, 204. 
Johannesburg, 356-358. 
John, King of Abyssinia, 74-76, 246, 
248. 
makes war on Egypt, 246. 
conflicting views of his character, 
246-248. 
Johnson, Elijah, 294. 
Johnston, H. H., 263, 264, 382, 385, 

387-389. 
Johnston, Fort, 388, 389. 
Joubert, General, 343. 
Jumbe, Arab sultan, 387, 388. 
Junker, Dr., 154, 178, 203, 204. 

R. 
Kabba Rega, King of Unyoro, 155, 

168, 185, 222, 223. 
Kabyles, 284. 
Kafr Do war, 59, 60. 
Kafirs, 327, 328. 
Karema, 205, 207. 

his sons, 222, 223. 
Karongas, 384. 
Kassala, 79, 86, 95, 249. 
Kassa. See John of Abyssinia. 
Kavallis, 168, 169, 182-184, 212, 215, 

225, 226. 
Kennaway, Sir John, quoted, 151. 
Kerens, 233, 234. 
Key, Francis Scott, 292. 
Khartoum, 69, 72, 92, 93, 96, 100. 
Khalifa, Abdullah, 95, loi. 
Khalifas, 98. 
Khedive, 39. 

Khama, 371. ^eQ postscript, ^i. 
Kilonga Longa, 166, 167. 
Kimberley, 350-357, 360-363. 



Kiwema, 205, 207. 
Kizell, John, 294. 
Kordofan, 70. 
Kruger, President, 343, 359. 

L. 

Lambert, M., 431. 

Lamoriciere, General, 399. 

Langalibalele, 329. 

Latimer, Commodore William K., 

302. 
Latrobe, J. H. B., 295, 297, 305, 307- 

312. 
Lavigerie, Cardinal, 420. 
Leon, de, quoted, 35. 
Leopold II, 83, 146. 
Leopoldville, 147. 
Lesseps, Count Ferdinand de, 18, 

quoted, 19-21, 36, 37, 54, 

406. 
Liberia, 294, 295, 301-304, 315-320. 

presidents of, 302, note. 
Liquor traffic, 151, 152, 417, 418. 
Lisle, Rudolph de, 87, 88. 
Little wars, 227, 321. 
Livingstone, David, 124, 134, 383. 
Livinhac, Mongr., Vicar Apostolic of 

East Africa, 202, 204. 
Lobengula, 363, 364, 368-370, 374, 

378, 380-382. 
war with, 370-374, 379. 
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 277. 
Lourdel, Father, 198, 201, 202, 203. 
Lowell, James Russell, 277, fiote, 316, 

317. 
Lugalama, 197, 198. 
Lugard, Captain F. D., 208-217, 225, 

226, 264, 384. 385, 423, 424. 
Lupton Bey, 104, 155. 

M. 
Madagascar, 427-442. 
Macdonald, Captain, 222. 
iMackay, Rev. A., 155, 184, 194-198, 

204, 206, 208. 
Mackenzie, Bishop, 128, 383. 
Mackinnon, Sir William, 193. 
McLean, Captain, 322, 323. 
Magdala, 239, 244, 245. 

march to, 237-239. 
Maguire, Captain, 385, 388. 
Mahdi, Abdullah Ahmed, 78-81, 85, 
93, 95. 97-101- 



INDEX. 



449 



Mahdis, 76, 77, 78. 

Mahmoud, Sultan, 24, 25, 27, 28. 

Majuba Hill, 344. 

Makanjira, 383. 

Makololo, 127, 383. 

Malta, 270, 271. 

Mamelukes, 11, 12. 
massacre of, 16, 17. 

Manyuema, 162, 166, 167, 173, 226. 

Marabouts, 392, 393. 

Martyrs, Christian, in Uganda, 197- 
205. 

Mashonas, 365, 367-369. 

Mashonaland, ruins in, 365-367. 

Masai, 264. 

Massowah, 249. 

Matabele, 364, 365, 369, 382. 

Maryland State Colonization Society, 
304, 305, 313-315. 

Maryland's own colony, Cape Pal- 
mas, now Maryland in Liberia, 

305-309, 311-313. 315- 
Maund, Lieutenant, 368, 369. 
Mazamboni, 168. 
Mbogo, 217, 218. 
Mechi-ed-Deen, 393, 394. 
Mehemet Ali, 12-14, 16, 17, 24, 25, 
27-31. 
his sons, 18. 

compared to Napoleon, 19. 
compared to Herod, 19, 20. 
Moffat, Rev, Dr., 125, 126. 
Mohammedanism, 253, 419-421. 
in Uganda, 192, 205, 206, 211, 
218. 
Mojanga, 434. 
Monteil, Colonel, 414. 
Morocco, 284, 285, 398, 399. 
Moselekatse, 364, 368. 
'Mtesa, 137-139, 151, 191, 192, 194- 

197, 219, 230. 
Muley el Hassan, 285-288. 
Muley Abdul Aziz, 286-289. 
'Mwanga, 196-198, 202, 204-209, 217- 
219, 223. 

N. 
Napier, Lord (Sir Robert), 237, 241, 

242. 
Napier, Admiral (Sir Charles) , 28. 
Napier, General (Sir Charles), 227. 
Napoleon HL, 400, 401, 431. 
Natal, 327-329, 334, 335. 



Navarino, battle of, 22. 

Nelson, Lord, 276. 

Nelson, Captain Robert H., 156, 160, 

162-170, 226. 
Ney, Napoleon, quoted, 410, 411. 
Niger, 409. 
Niger Company, 422. 
Nile, 70-74, 115, 128. 
Nile Basin. See Equatoria, 
Nubar Pasha, 36, 71, 84, 395. 
Nubia, 70, 71. 
Nyangwe, 140, 148. 
Nyasa Lake, 128, 135, 386. 
Nyasaland, 383-389. 

O. 

O'Flaherty, Rev. Philip, 193, 201. 
Ohrwalder, Father, 96-109. 
Omdurman, 100. 
Orange Free State, 329, 347, 349, 350, 

3SS. 
Osman Digna, 73, 80-83. 
Owen, Major, 223, 224. 

P. 

Pain, Olivier, 102-104. 

Palgrave, 236. 

Parke, Dr., 157-170, 172, 173, 176, 

182, 183, 185, 226. 
Parker, Bishop, 204. 
Patrimonies, 435. 
Patterson, Captain, 380-382. 
Pennefather, Colonel, 363, 369. 
Philadelphia, U.S. man-of-war, orj^, 

Philae, 114, 115. 

Pierre, Admiral, 435. 

Pinto, Serpa, Captain, 384. 

Plowden, Consul, 230, 331. 

Pocock, 137, 142. 

Poole, Stanley-Lane, quoted, 266, 

267. 
Pondoland, 346. 
Portal, Sir Gerald, 219, 221, 222. 
Portuguese, 347, 384, 385. 
Power, 87, 100. 
Preble, Commodore Edward, 275- 

277. 
Prescott, William H., 271. 
Pretorius, 343. 

Prideaux, Lieutenant, 236, 240-242. 
Prince Imperial, 336-340. 
Pygmies, 172. 



450 



INDEX. 



Quinine, 312, 313. 

R. 

RaafF, Commandant, 371,372. 

Radama I., 429, 430. 

Radama II., 430, 431. 

Railroads in Africa, 281, 359, 360, 

407, 408, 411, 412. 
Rainilaiarivony, 433. 
Ranavalona I., 430, 
Ranavalona 11. , 431, 432, 
Ranavalona III., 432, 433, 439, 441. 
Randolph, John, of Roanoke, 292. 
Rassam, Hormuzd, 234-236. 
Renan, quoted, 10. 
Renegades, 272. 
Revue des Deux Mondes, quoted, 

431- 
Rhodes, Hon, J. Cecil, 361-363, 370, 

385. 
Rhodesia, 361, 382. 
Riaz Pasha, 61. 
Roberts, President, 302. 
Robinson, Sir Hercules, 345, 355. 
Rorke's Drift, 334. 
Rossignoli, Father, 107. 
Rupert, Prince, 427, 428. 
Russwurm, John B., 300, 312, 313. 



Sahara, 405. 

Said Pasha, Viceroy, 35-38, 68. 

Sakalavas, 429, 434, 435. 

Salisbury, Fort, 364, 369, 370. 

Salisbury, Lord, 384. 

Sal'me, Princess, 251-256, 258, 259 ; 

quoted, 252, 253, 259. 
Samweli, 203. 

Selim Bey, 213-215, 218, 222. 
Senegal, 411, 412. 
Senior, Mr,, quoted, 16, 18, 32. 
Senoussi, Sheikh of Jerboub, 282, 

283. 
Seyyid Burghash, 250, 257, 260. 
Seyyid Medjid, 250, 254-258. 
Seyyid Said, 250, 251, 257. 
Shepstone, Sir Theophilus, 330, 342. 
Sierra Leone, 291, 293, 295. 
Sikhs, 385, 388, 389. 
Sinkat, 82. 
Sisters of Charity, 96, 99, 100, 105, 

106. 



Slatin Bey (Pasha), 97, 104, 107, loS, 
109. 

Somers, Richard, 277. 

Soudan, 68, 70, 71, 79, 84, 115, 117. 
French, 406-411. 

Speedy, Captain Charles, 233, 237. 

Speke, Captain, 128, 137. 

St. Louis, 412. 

Stairs, Captain Grant, 156, 159, 167, 
226. 

Standiton, 343, 344. 

Stanley, Henry M., 123, 130-148, 153- 
ISS. 157-170. 172, 173-189, 206, 
207, 227, 238-240, 242, 303, 319, 
320, 407. 

Starvation Camp, 162, 165, 294. 

Stewart, Sir Herbert, 363. 

Stewart, Colonel, 87, 100. 

Stiles, Dr., 290, 291. 

Stokes, trader, 207, 211. See post- 
script, 443. 

Suakim, 69, 80, 82, 83. 

Suez Canal, 36, 37, 40, 50, 55. 

Swaziland, 347. 



Tamatave, 429, 431. 

Tananarivo. See Antananarivo, 438. 

Tanganyika, lake, 128, 135, 140, 

413- 
Tel el Kebir, 56, 57. 
Tewfik Pasha, Khedive, 43,45-47,51, 

53. "9. 120, 157. 
Theal, 334; quoted, 63, 64, 348, 349. 
Theodore, Emperor of Abyssmia, 

229-245. 
Thiers, Adolphe, quoted, 397. 
Timbuctoo, 406-410. 
" Times," quoted, 213-215. 
Tippu Tib, 140-142, 151, 157, 158, 

174- 
Todros, 247. 
Tokar, 81. 
Tongaland, 347. 
Touaregs, 405, 410, 411. 
Transvaal (South African Republic, 

327. 329. 330. 342. 355-358. 
Tribute paid by Christian nations to 

Barbary corsairs, 272-278, 279. 
Tripoli, 273-279, 281-283. 
Troup, Rose, 156, 159. 
Tsetse fly, 129. 
Tunis, 268, 273, 278-280, 415. 



INDEX. 



451 



U. 
Uganda, 137, 155, 192, 219, 221. 
political and religious differences 
in, 194, ig8, 206-208, 210, 211, 
216-222. 
British protectorate over, 223. 
cost of transportation to, 262. 
United States, 272-275. 

has no colonies, 290, 301, 320. 
Unkiar Skelessi, treaty of, 25, 
Unyoro, 155, 164, 192. 
Usogo, 199, 200. 

V. 

Vaal River, 347, 354. 
Victoria, Queen, 63, 232-236. 
Victoria Nyanza, 136, 137. 

railroad to, 189. See postsc7-ipt, 

443- 
Virginia, 291. 

W. 

Wadai, 410. 

Wadelai, 179, 180, 214, 224, 414, 

416. 
Wadsworth, Henry, 277, 
Waganda, note, 193. 
Wahabees, 14, 15. 
Walker, Rev. R. H., 205. 
Waller, ex-consul, 439, tiote. 
Walukugu, 201-203. 



Ward, Herbert, 156, 159, 175. 
Washington, Judge Bushrod, 292. 
Weissman, Major, 185, 261. 
Wells of El Teb, battle, 82. 
White Fathers (see Mahdi and Ugan- 
da), 410, 420, 421, 426, 439. 
WilUams, Mr., 216, 
Williams College, 292. 
Willoughby, General Digby, quoted, 

434. 435- 
Wingate, Major, 107, 108. 
Wolseley, Field Marshal, Lord (Sir 

Garnet), 53, 56, 59, 63, 94, 95, 

108. 
Wormeley, John Wallace, 275. 

Y. 

Yambuya, 159, 160, 175. 

Yaos, 383, 384. 

Yellow race, 263, 264, 3880 

Z. 

Zanzibar, 250-263. 
Zebdhr Pasha, 75, 84, 85. 
Zechariah, 224, 225. 
Zimbabwe, 366-368, 378. 
ZouUa, 237, 249. 
Zululand, 341, 342, 346. 
Zulus, 328, 335, 336. 
Zulu war, 324, 331-334. 



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